DIRECT IN-SITU GROWTH OF MULTIWALLED CARBON NANOTUBES ON SILICON CARBIDE PARTICLES AS A PRECURSOR FOR FABRICATING SILICON CARBIDE -CARBON NANOTUBE COMPOSITES

摘要

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are 100 stronger than steel with only 1/6 of its weight and are ideal reinforcing fibers for nanocomposites. CNT has a thermal conductivity of 4.000 W/m-K, which is twice that of diamond - the best conductor on earth. CNTs can be either semi-conductor or metallic conductor, depending of its chirality. These remarkable properties enable CNTs to have enormous potential for advanced material applications, such as nanocomposites and in nanoelectronics. The application of CNTs on nanocomposites has been greatly hindered by two main factors - the interface bonding between the carbon nanotubes and the matrix material, and the difficulty in getting a uniform dispersion of carbon nanotubes in the matrix.In the following research we present a new method of accomplishing uniform CNT distributions in a Silicon Carbide (SiC) matrix by direct in-situ growth of multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs) on the SiC particles. This method ensures a more uniform dispersion of CNTs in the matrix than the traditional ex-situ CNT mixing methods. The other advantage of this method is that most of the CNTs grown are individual CNTs and not in the form of bundles.