MOLECULAR DYNAMIC SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FILLING CHOPPED SWNTS WITH RESIN MATRIX MOLECULES TO ENHANCE INTERFACIAL BONDING AND LOADING TRANSFER IN NANOCOMPOSITES

摘要

The authors developed a new method for improving interfacial bonding and load transfer between single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNTs) and epoxy resin matrix by filling the matrix molecules into the open ends of mechanically chopped SWNTs. The fill-in molecules in the tubes would form chemical bonding with the resin cross-link structure outside the tube during resin curing. The fill-in molecule chain of the cured resin matrix could form “mechanical locks” between the SWNTs and resin matrix in the nanocomposites, thereby increasing the interfacial bonding strength and load transfer between nanotubes and resin matrix of nanotube-reinforced composites. The feasibility of this method was theoretically explored using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The MD simulation results revealed that the resin matrix molecules would fill into (10,10) SWNTs. The SWNTs were mechanically chopped to an average length around 260nm, and then used to produce nanocomposites with the selected resin matrix. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) results showed that the chopped SWNTs have better reinforcing efficiency than that of the pristine SWNTs in the resultant SWNT/epoxy composites