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Fabrication and properties of aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy composites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Qunfeng Cheng ,
Jiaping Wang ,
Kaili Jiang ,
Qunqing Li  and
Shoushan Fan
Qunfeng Cheng
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
Jiaping Wang*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
Kaili Jiang
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
Qunqing Li
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
Shoushan Fan
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

A method to fabricate continuous and aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT)/epoxy composites is presented in this paper. CNT/epoxy composites were made by infiltrating an epoxy resin into a stack of continuous and aligned multiwalled CNT sheets that were drawn from super-aligned CNT arrays. By controlling the amount and alignment of the continuous multiwalled CNT sheets, a CNT/epoxy composite with high content of well-dispersed CNTs can be obtained. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results show that the thermal stability of these CNT/epoxy composites was not affected by the addition of CNTs. The mechanical properties and electrical properties of the CNT/epoxy composites were dramatically improved compared to pure epoxy, suggesting that the CNT/epoxy composites can serve as multifunctional materials with combined mechanical and physical properties.

Keywords

CompositeNanostructurePolymer
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 23 , Issue 11 , November 2008 , pp. 2975 - 2983
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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