Modification of CNT and its effect on thermo mechanical, morphological as well as rheological properties of Polyether Im
- PDF / 671,227 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 103 Downloads / 243 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Modification of CNT and its effect on thermo mechanical, morphological as well as rheological properties of Polyether Imide (PEI)/Liquid Crystalline Polymer (LCP) blend system Goutam Hatui & Chapal Kumar Das
Received: 9 August 2012 / Accepted: 3 January 2013 / Published online: 15 January 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract This work analysed the effect of physical and chemical interactions between the modified mutiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and the Polyetherimide/Liquid crystalline polymer (PEI/LCP) blend matrix, on the dispersion of MWCNTs and deformation of LCP particles. Silicon Carbide (SiC) and TiO2 coated MWCNTs were prepared from polycarbosilane and titanium (IV) n- butoxide precursors, respectively, by sol–gel process to improve their dispersion in the polymer matrix. Formation of both was confirmed by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and X-Ray photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) studies. Polyetherimide (PEI)/liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) blends with unmodified and modified MWCNTs were prepared by melt blending. TEM and Field Electron Scanning Electron microscope (FESEM) studies revealed better dispersion of modified MWCNT in the polymer matrix than the unmodified one. Rheological analysis of hybrid composite systems containing modified and unmodified MWCNT revealed that nano composite containing TiO2 coated MWCNT has the lowest viscosity and this is due to fibrillation of LCP. Superior thermal stability of modified MWCNT added composites was confirmed from thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) studies showed the variation in glass transition temperature (Tg) of the composites in presence of pure and modified MWCNT. Mechanical properties of nanocomposites with TiO2 coated MWCNTs were found to be higher than that of pure MWCNTs added nanocomposite. Keywords PEI . LCP . Modified MWCNT . Thermo-mechanical properties . DMTA . DSC G. Hatui : C. K. Das (*) Materials Science Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302 West Bengal, India e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction The unique tubular structure of carbon nanotubes and high aspect ratio of carbon nanotubes makes them promising ingredients for polymer nanocomposites [1]. In recent years researchers both in industry and academic purpose has focussed on the polymeric nanocomposites. The main advantage of nano reinforcement was summarized in the work by Griffith [2] and Weibull in 1950s [3] who reported that the smaller a material is, the stronger it becomes assuming that the failure of macroscopic specimens is due to the existence of defects, i.e., cracks and that materials that are smaller than a critical crack length are able to reach their theoretical maximum strength. The main challenge for the manufacturing of carbon nanotubes based polymer nanocomposites lies on the individual dispersion of polymer nanocomposites, which will expose the maximum interfacial area for interact
Data Loading...