Dynamic electrical properties of polymer-carbon nanotube composites: Enhancement through covalent bonding

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Donghui Zhang New Mexico State University, Department of Physics, and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-8001

Wudyalew T. Wondmagegn New Mexico State University, Department of Physics, and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-8001

Amanda V. Ellis Gracefield Research Centre, Industrial Research Ltd., Lower Hutt 6009, New Zealand

Jiri Cech and Siegmar Roth Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart 70569, Germany

David L. Carroll Department of Physics, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109 (Received 6 September 2005; accepted 25 January 2006)

Composite formation between carbon nanotubes and polymers can dramatically enhance the electrical and thermal properties of the combined materials. We have prepared a composite from polystyrene and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and, unlike traditional techniques of composite formation, we chose to polymerize styrene from the surface of dithiocarboxylic ester-functionalized MWCNTs to fabricate a unique composite material, a new technique dubbed “gRAFT” polymerization. The thermal stability of the polymer matrix in the covalently linked MWCNT-polystyrene composite is significantly enhanced, as demonstrated by a 15 °C increase of the decomposition temperature than that of the noncovalently linked MWCNT-polystyrene blend. Thin films made from the composite with low MWCNT loadings (

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