Electrical Conductivity and Elastic Properties of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polycarbonate Nanocomposites

Author(s):  
Yves Ngabonziza ◽  
Jackie Li

In the past years, carbon nanotubes and their composites have been intensively studied due to their extremely high strength and high electrical and thermal conductivities. However, to be able to use CNT-reinforced composites as structural materials in real applications, more cost-efficient processing methods should be adopted and the properties of such nanocomposites need to be further analyzed. Here we investigate the electrical and elastic properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) reinforced polycarbonate (PC) nanocomposites produced by injection molding which has been widely used in industrial plastic production. Nanocomposite samples with MWCNT ranging from 0 to 7wt% were tested for both electrical conductivity using a 2-probe measurement and mechanical properties under tensile loading. It has been found that the electrical conductivity depends on both injection velocity and the CNT content while the elastic properties of the nanocomposites only depend on the CNT content. Besides the experimental testing, a percolation theory and micromechanics models have been applied to determine the electrical conductivity percolation threshold and the effective elastic modulus of the nanocomposites in terms of CNT contents. The results are compared with our experimental data. It shows that a percolation threshold is around 1.8wt% of MWCNT. The evaluation of elastic properties using micromechanics models not only indicates the influence of MWCNT on elastic properties but also the presence of an interphase between the CNT and PC matrix.

2011 ◽  
Vol 492 ◽  
pp. 185-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Jie Qin ◽  
Wu Yao ◽  
Jun Qing Zuo ◽  
Hai Yong Cao

This paper gives an assessment on the electrical conductivity of different additive fillers (graphite, multi-walled carbon nanotubes) into carbon fiber-cement based composites (CFRC). Results show that cement matrix containing 0.4% carbon fiber (CF) and 0.5% multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) exhibits an excellent electrical conductivity of 33.65Ω·cm. When the content of CF is below the percolation threshold (0.4% CF), adding graphite is beneficial to the electrical conduction of CFRC, which has a tremendous drift from 3991.44Ω·cm to 524.33Ω·cm as the content of graphite varies from 0% to 30%. However, when the content of CF is above the percolation threshold, adding graphite makes no advantages in the electrical conductivity of CFRC because of leading to a porosity rising. MWCNTs are useful conductive constituents for CFRC and can increase electrical conductivity by two orders of magnitude. However, excessive adding MWCNTs into CFRC will have a rapid increase of electrical resistivity on the contrary.


2014 ◽  
Vol 550 ◽  
pp. 30-38
Author(s):  
S. Sivananthan ◽  
S. Gnanasekaran ◽  
Jerold Samuel C. Samson

Metal Matrix Composites (MMC) has wide range of engineering applications such as high strength, temperature, stiffness, yield strength and modulus of rigidity. Among the metals, aluminium is widely used due to its light weight. However, the electrical conductivity of aluminium is low when compared with copper. This paper deals with the development of aluminium nanocomposites based on Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) in order to enhance the electrical resistivity of aluminium. Morphology and electrical properties of the nanocomposites has been analyzed and compared with aluminium.


Author(s):  
Yves Ngabonziza ◽  
Jackie Li ◽  
Carol F. Barry

Electrical and elastic properties of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) reinforced polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites were studied experimentally and theoretically. The MWCNT-PP nanocomposites samples with a range of 0 to 12 wt% MWCNT were injection molded using different injection velocities. These nanocomposites were characterized for their electrical resistance using 2-Probe measurement and their tensile properties. Parallel to the experimental investigation, a percolation theory was applied to study the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposite system in terms of content of nanotubes and injection rate. Both Kirkpatrick [1] and McLachlan [2] models were used to determine the transition from low conductivity to high conductivity which designates as percolation threshold. Both experimental and modeling results have shown that the electrical conductivity increased suddenly as the content of MWNTs was close to percolation threshold of 3.8 wt%. The injection speed also showed an effect on electrical conductivity of the composites. In addition, several micromechanical models were applied to elucidate the elastic properties of the nanocomposites. The results indicate that the interphase between the carbon nanotubes and polymers plays an important role in determining elastic modulus of the system.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1150
Author(s):  
Nicolás A. Ulloa-Castillo ◽  
Roberto Hernández-Maya ◽  
Jorge Islas-Urbano ◽  
Oscar Martínez-Romero ◽  
Emmanuel Segura-Cárdenas ◽  
...  

This article focuses on exploring how the electrical conductivity and densification properties of metallic samples made from aluminum (Al) powders reinforced with 0.5 wt % concentration of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and consolidated through spark plasma sintering (SPS) process are affected by the carbon nanotubes dispersion and the Al particles morphology. Experimental characterization tests performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) show that the MWCNTs were uniformly ball-milled and dispersed in the Al surface particles, and undesirable phases were not observed in X-ray diffraction measurements. Furthermore, high densification parts and an improvement of about 40% in the electrical conductivity values were confirmed via experimental tests performed on the produced sintered samples. These results elucidate that modifying the powder morphology using the ball-milling technique to bond carbon nanotubes into the Al surface particles aids the ability to obtain highly dense parts with increasing electrical conductivity properties.


Author(s):  
Andrea Meoni ◽  
Antonella D'Alessandro ◽  
Austin Downey ◽  
Enrique García-Macías ◽  
Marco Rallini ◽  
...  

The availability of new self-sensing cement-based strain sensors allows the development of dense sensor networks for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of reinforced concrete structures. These sensors are fabricated by doping cement-matrix materials with conductive fillers, such as Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs), and can be embedded into structural elements made of reinforced concrete prior to casting. The strain sensing principle is based on the multifunctional composites outputting a measurable change in their electrical properties when subjected to a deformation. Previous work by the authors was devoted to material fabrication, modeling and applications in SHM. In this paper, we investigate the behavior of several sensors fabricated with and without aggregates and with different MWCNTs content. The strain sensitivity of the sensors, in terms of fractional change in electrical resistivity for unit strain, as well as their linearity are investigated through experimental testing under both static and dynamically varying compressive loadings. Moreover, the responses of the sensors when subjected to destructive compressive tests are evaluated. Overall, the presented results contribute to improving the scientific knowledge on the behavior of smart concrete sensors and to furthering their understanding for SHM applications.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abeer O. Obeid ◽  
Fatma Al-Yusufy ◽  
Sama A Al-Aghbari ◽  
omar alshujaa ◽  
Yassin Gaber ◽  
...  

<p>The chemical functionalization of amino multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-NH<sub>2</sub>) by selenium dioxide (SeO<sub>2</sub>) was used to produce Poly [MWCNT/Imidoselenium] composite. The prepared poly-composite was characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM, XRD, UV, DSC and TGA. The DC electrical conductivity of poly-composite was 4.3×10<sup>-4</sup> S/cm due to the interaction between the nanotubes. </p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kanapitsas ◽  
E. Logakis ◽  
C. Pandis ◽  
I. Zuburtikudis ◽  
P. Pissis ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this work is to examine the dielectric, electrical and thermo-mechanical properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) filled polypropylene nanocomposites formed by melt-mixing. To that aim dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) and dymamic mechanical analysis (DTMA) were employed. The results are discussed in terms of nucleating action of MWCNT and interfacial polymer-filler interactions. Special attention is paid to percolation aspects by both ac conductivity measurements for the samples which are above the percolation threshold and permittivity measurements for the samples which are below percolation threshold.


2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (S1) ◽  
pp. 77-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cher Hon Lau ◽  
Raoul Cervini ◽  
Stephen R. Clarke ◽  
Milena Ginic Markovic ◽  
Janis G. Matisons ◽  
...  

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