Influence of carbon nanotube grafting on chemo-electrical properties of Conductive Polymer nanoComposites
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Influence of carbon nanotube grafting on chemo-electrical properties of Conductive Polymer nanoComposites Mickaël CASTRO1, Jianbo LU1, Bijandra KUMAR1, Stéphane BRUZAUD1, Jean-François FELLER1 1 Materials Engineering Laboratory of Brittany (LIMATB), European University of Brittany (UEB), South-Brittany, Lorient, FRANCE
ABSTRACT New unique abilities towards solvents’ vapor of electrically Conductive Polymer nanoComposites (CPCs) have made it a subject, holding the attention of research groups. The direct conversion from chemical information into an electrical signal can take advantage of existing low power microelectronics and sensing technology such as detection of toxic vapor; environmental monitoring in chemical industry and quality control in food processing, beverage and perfume industry. Conductive Polymer nanoComposite (CPC) is a heterogeneous system consisting of insulated polymer matrices and conductive nanofillers. In this paper we have investigated a new route for CNT grafting via ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone. The influence of this treatment on chemo-electrical properties of the so-called CPC based sensor was investigated in this work.
INTRODUCTION Lots of researchers have focused on the development of smart materials from Conductive Polymer nanoComposites (CPC) as more and more applications require that the material can be reactive to its environment and able to transmit information [1-5]. CPC are especially suitable for monitoring vapor content, temperature or strain changes, by the analysis of their resistivity changes with external solicitations [6, 7]. Electrical conductivity is primary condition for CPC. It is generally achieved through the dispersion of carbon or metal nanofillers into an insulating polymer matrix. As a guest filler, carbon nanotubes (CNT) discovered in 1991 [8] have attracted more and more attention, principally because nanotubes possess exceptional mechanical, electrical, and special surface-volume properties [9-12]. However, a key issue in producing polymer-CNT nanocomposites is how to control the degree of dispersion/aggregation and the interaction between each component of such system. One conceivable way to improve the dispersion of nano fillers in the polymer matrix relies on in-situ polymerization of matrix oligomers from the carbon nanotubes [13, 14]. In this paper we have investigated a new route for CNT grafting via ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone. Grafted CNTs are visualized by AFM. The effect of grafted CNT on sensor was further investigated via CPC preparation. Electrical responses were recorded while exposing to water, methanol, tetrahydrofuran, chloroform and toluene vapors.
EXPERIMENT Materials Hydroxy functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (Nanocyl-3153) were kindly provided from Nanocyl. Trimethylaluminium (2.0 M solution in toluene, Aldrich) was used as received, and stored and handled in a glovebox. ε-Caprolactone (99%, Acros) was vacuum distilled over calcium hydride and stored at -20 °C under argon. Toluene
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