Thermal and mechanical properties of single-walled carbon nanotube bundle-reinforced epoxy nanocomposites : the role of solvent for nanotube dispersion

By K. T. Lau, M. Lu, C. Lam, H. Cheung, Feng Sheng, Hu-lin Li. 2005

277 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) dispersed with various solvents were incorporated into epoxy matrix via sonication method. Dynamics differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results indicated that even small traces of residual solvent in the composite processing had a great impact on the cure reaction and subsequently affected the endothermic behaviors of the nanocomposites. The solvent selection for nanotube dispersion also had a significant influence on the Vicker’s hardness and the flexural strength of the nanocomposites. The solvent effects are in the order of DMF > ethanol > acetone. SEM observation on the fracture surfaces of the nanocomposites did not explain the variance of the nanocomposites properties. The change trend of the thermal and mechanical properties was found to be related to the boiling point of respective solvent used. The results of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) proved the existence of the residual solvent in the resulting nanocomposites. Further evidence of the solvent influence was obtained by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, which displayed the difference in the molecular structure of the final nanocomposites depending on the solvent used. The solvent influence is attributed to the different amount of unreacted epoxide groups and the extent of cure reaction in the manufacturing process.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Polymers and Plastics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/05bed86ea0a9da6d789cd8ca71805caf14b274c8

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Citations in the corpus

Effect of dispersion conditions on the thermo-mechanical and toughness properties of multi walled carbon nanotubes-reinforced epoxy (2012, background): “The physical dispersion routes on the other hand include the ultrasonication, high-shear and high-impact mixing [32–37].”
A critical review on nanotube and nanotube/nanoclay related polymer composite materials (2006, methodology): “[48] have found that acetone would be a better solvent used to disperse nanotubes into epoxy-based composites because the use of”
Growth of carbon nanotubes on carbon fibre substrates to produce hybrid/phenolic composites with improved mechanical properties (2008, background): “pointing despite huge promise, due to issues such as dispersion, alignment and interfacial strength [7–11].”
Small but strong: A review of the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube–polymer composites (2006, methodology): “initially dispersed nanotubes in DMF, ethanol and acetone by sonication before adding the epoxy [105].”