Effective reinforcement in carbon nanotube–polymer composites

Author(s):  
W Wang ◽  
P Ciselli ◽  
E Kuznetsov ◽  
T Peijs ◽  
A.H Barber

Carbon nanotubes have mechanical properties that are far in excess of conventional fibrous materials used in engineering polymer composites. Effective reinforcement of polymers using carbon nanotubes is difficult due to poor dispersion and alignment of the nanotubes along the same axis as the applied force during composite loading. This paper reviews the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes and their polymer composites to highlight how many previously prepared composites do not effectively use the excellent mechanical behaviour of the reinforcement. Nanomechanical tests using atomic force microscopy are carried out on simple uniaxially aligned carbon nanotube-reinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibres prepared using electrospinning processes. Dispersion of the carbon nanotubes within the polymer is achieved using a surfactant. Young's modulus of these simple composites is shown to approach theoretically predicted values, indicating that the carbon nanotubes are effective reinforcements. However, the use of dispersant is also shown to lower Young's modulus of the electrospun PVA fibres.

2013 ◽  
Vol 761 ◽  
pp. 83-86
Author(s):  
Hideaki Sano ◽  
Junichi Morisaki ◽  
Guo Bin Zheng ◽  
Yasuo Uchiyama

Effects of carbon nanotubes (CNT) addition on mechanical properties, electric conductivity and oxidation resistance of CNT/Al2O3-TiC composite were investigated. It was found that flexural strength, Young’s modulus and fracture toughness of the composites were improved by addition of more than 2 vol%-CNT. In the composites with more than 3 vol%-CNT, the oxidation resistance of the composite was degraded. In comparison with Al2O3-26vol%TiC sample as TiC particle-percolated sample, the Al2O3-12vol%TiC-3vol%CNT sample, which is not TiC particle-percolated sample, shows almost the same mechanical properties and electric conductivity, and also shows thinner oxidized region after oxidation at 1200°C due to less TiC in the composite.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 1693-1701 ◽  
Author(s):  
EA Zakharychev ◽  
EN Razov ◽  
Yu D Semchikov ◽  
NS Zakharycheva ◽  
MA Kabina

This paper investigates the structure, length, and percentage of functional groups of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) depending on the time taken for functionalization in HNO3 and H2SO4 mixture. The carbon nanotube content and influence of functionalization time on mechanical properties of polymer composite materials based on epoxy matrix are studied. The extreme dependencies of mechanical properties of carbon nanotube functionalization time of polymer composites were established. The rise in tensile strength of obtained composites reaches 102% and elastic modulus reaches 227% as compared to that of unfilled polymer. The composites exhibited best mechanical properties by including carbon nanotube with 0.5 h functionalization time.


Author(s):  
Mohsen Motamedi ◽  
AH Naghdi ◽  
SK Jalali

Composite materials have become popular because of high mechanical properties and lightweight. Aluminum/carbon nanotube is one of the most important metal composite. In this research, mechanical properties of aluminum/carbon nanotube composite were obtained using molecular dynamics simulation. Then, effect of temperature on stress–strain curve of composite was studied. The results showed by increasing temperature, the Young’s modulus of composite was decreased. More specifically increasing the temperature from 150 K to 620 K, decrease the Young’s modulus to 11.7%. The ultimate stress of composite also decreased by increasing the temperature. A continuum model of composite was presented using finite element method. The results showed the role of carbon nanotube on strengthening of composite.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Numan Salah ◽  
Abdulrahman Muhammad Alfawzan ◽  
Abdu Saeed ◽  
Ahmed Alshahrie ◽  
Waleed Allafi

AbstractCarbon nanotubes (CNTs) are widely investigated for preparing polymer nanocomposites, owing to their unique mechanical properties. However, dispersing CNTs uniformly in a polymer matrix and controlling their entanglement/agglomeration are still big technical challenges to be overcome. The costs of their raw materials and production are also still high. In this work, we propose the use of CNTs grown on oil fly ash to solve these issues. The CNTs of oil fly ash were evaluated as reinforcing materials for some common thermoplastics. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) was mainly reinforced with various weight fractions of CNTs. Xylene was used as a solvent to dissolve HDPE and to uniformly disperse the CNTs. Significantly enhanced mechanical properties of HDPE reinforced at a low weight fraction of these CNTs (1–2 wt.%), mainly the tensile strength, Young’s modulus, stiffness, and hardness, were observed. The tensile strength and Young’s modulus were enhanced by ~20 and 38%, respectively. Moreover, the nanoindentation results were found to be in support to these findings. Polycarbonate, polypropylene, and polystyrene were also preliminarily evaluated after reinforcement with 1 wt.% CNTs. The tensile strength and Young’s Modulus were increased after reinforcement with CNTs. These results demonstrate that the CNTs of the solid waste, oil fly ash, might serve as an appropriate reinforcing material for different thermoplastics polymers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing-Sheng Yang ◽  
Bing-Qi Li ◽  
Xiao-Qiao He ◽  
Yiu-Wing Mai

This investigation focuses on the design of functionalization configuration at the atomic level to determine the influence of atomic structure on the mechanical properties of functionalized carbon nanotubes (F-CNTs) and their composites. Tension and compressive buckling behaviors of different configurations of CNTs functionalized by H atoms are studied by a molecular dynamics (MD) method. It is shown that H-atom functionalization reduces Young’s modulus of CNTs, but Young’s modulus is not sensitive to the functionalization configuration. The configuration does, however, affect the tensile strength and critical buckling stress of CNTs. Further, the stress-strain relations of composites reinforced by nonfunctionalized and various functionalized CNTs are analyzed.


Author(s):  
Catalin Fetecau ◽  
Felicia Stan ◽  
Daniel Dobrea ◽  
Dan Catalin Birsan

In this paper, we investigated the effect of injection molding parameters such as melt temperature, mold temperature, injection speed and holding pressure on the mechanical properties of low density polyethylene reinforced with 2.5 wt% multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The Taguchi methodology with four factors and two levels was used for the design of the injection molding experiments. The mechanical properties were evaluated by tensile tests in the flow direction at room temperature (23 °C) at crosshead speeds of 1 and 5 mm/min. It was found that the mechanical properties can be modified by manipulating the injection molding parameters. The Young’s modulus of the LDPE-MWNTs composite decreased as the melt temperature increased, while mold temperature, injection molding speed and holding pressure have a moderate influence on the Young’s modulus.


RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (33) ◽  
pp. 27999-28004
Author(s):  
Lizhao Liu

Empirical formulae were fitted to describe relationships between the intrinsic strength/Young's modulus and curvature of the Z-CNTs.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2997
Author(s):  
Carlos Talayero ◽  
Omar Aït-Salem ◽  
Pedro Gallego ◽  
Alicia Páez-Pavón ◽  
Rosario G. Merodio-Perea ◽  
...  

The main objective of this study is to create a rigorous computer model of carbon nanotube composites to predict their mechanical properties before they are manufactured and to reduce the number of physical tests. A detailed comparison between experimental and computational results of a cement-based composite is made to match data and find the most significant parameters. It is also shown how the properties of the nanotubes (Young’s modulus, aspect ratio, quantity, directionality, clustering) and the cement (Young’s modulus) affect the composite properties. This paper tries to focus on the problem of modeling carbon nanotube composites computationally, and further study proposals are given.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Zhao ◽  
Mahyuddin K. M. Nasution ◽  
Maboud Hekmatifar ◽  
Roozbeh Sabetvand ◽  
Pavel Kamenskov ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the present study, the improvement of mechanical properties of conventional concretes using carbon nanoparticles is investigated. More precisely, carbon nanotubes are added to a pristine concrete matrix, and the mechanical properties of the resulting structure are investigated using the molecular dynamics (MD) method. Some parameters such as the mechanical behavior of the concrete matrix structure, the validation of the computational method, and the mechanical behavior of the concrete matrix structure with carbon nanotube are also examined. Also, physical quantities such as a stress–strain diagram, Poisson's coefficient, Young's modulus, and final strength are calculated and reported for atomic samples under external tension. From a numerical point of view, the quantities of Young's modulus and final strength are converged to 35 GPa and 35.38 MPa after the completion of computer simulations. This indicates the appropriate effect of carbon nanotubes in improving the mechanical behavior of concrete and the efficiency of molecular dynamics method in expressing the mechanical behavior of atomic structures such as concrete, carbon nanotubes and composite structures derived from raw materials is expressed that can be considered in industrial and construction cases.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 212-225
Author(s):  
Elias Randjbaran ◽  
Rizal Zahari ◽  
Dayang L. Majid ◽  
Mohamed T. H. Sultan ◽  
Norkhairunnisa Mazlan

Motivation/Background: Current review paper is about the forecast of Young's modulus for carbon nanotubes, from both hypothetical and exploratory angles are introduced.  The disparities between the estimations of Young's modulus announced in the writing are broke down, and distinctive patterns of the outcomes are examined. Explain the importance of the problem investigated in the paper. Include here a statement of the main research question. Method: A whole investigation is performed to feature the obstructions and downsides of the demonstrating methods and crucial presumptions utilized which ought to be defeated in additionally contemplates. Conclusions: The perspectives that ought to be considered all the more precisely in demonstrating carbon nanotube composites are distinguished.


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