CARBON NANOCOMPOSITES - APPLICATIONS IN DIFFERENTIATED COMMODITY POLYMERS

摘要

The promise of nanocomposites lies in the power of being able to achieve the perfection of constructing a composite material at or near the atomic level, and capturing dramatically improved physical properties over a macroscopic domain. Carbon nanofiber, typically highly graphitic and having a diameter of 10 to 200 or more nanometers and a length of a few hundred micrometers, is a material that has received much attention in the scientific community as a potential reinforcement for nanocomposites. While the principles and methods for composite design, fabrication and synthesis have been well-established for glass fiber and carbon fiber, the rules for surface functionalization, optimum composite interphase, compounding, molding, and alignment of the reinforcement in preferred directions have yet to be fully developed for carbon nanofiber. This paper will present the progress in a development effort to control the surface state of carbon nanofibers and understand the impact of compounding techniques along with the corresponding effects in synthesis and resulting physical properties, particularly electrical conductivity, of selected polymer composites.