Effects of functionalized carbon nanotubes with surfactants on the mechanical and thermal properties of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) nanocomposites.

摘要

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been used with polymers from date of their inception to make composites having remarkable properties and materials. In this work, the nanocomposites were prepared by blending the CNTs with high density polyethylene (HDPE) using brabender mixing machine at various loadings (1 wt%, 3 wt%, and 5 wt%). The blending was repeated for the surfactants (CNTs/COOH, CNTs/C₁₈, and CNTs/PHENOL). The surface morphology of CNTs and their functional groups were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). A significant improvement on mechanical properties of HDPE/CNTs nanocomposites were observed by increasing the loading of raw and functionalized CNTs. From thermal analysis study, it was found that the melting and crystallization temperatures of the composites are slightly affected by the addition of raw and functionalized CNTs. However, clear enhancements on the degree of crystallization of the nanocompopsites by adding 1 wt% of CNTs while further increase in the amounts of raw and functionalized CNTs caused a clear reduction in the degree of crystallization. From rheological characterization, the complex viscosity (η') was lowered at 1wt% loading and increased with addition of raw and functionalized CNTs. Likewise, the storage modulus (G') was found to be increased in all the nanocomposites with the increasing in the CNTs contents. The corresponding increase in the loss moduli (G'') in all HDPE nanocomposites is much lower than for the storage moduli and there is no evidence for the formation of a plateau.