Effects of incorporation of polyester on the electrical resistivity of polycarbonate/multi-walled carbon nanotube nanocomposite

摘要

In this work, we present the effect of incorporation of polyester on the electrical properties of injection-molded polycarbonate/multi-walled carbon nanotube nanocomposites. The study was conducted by melt-mixing polycarbonate, multi-walled carbon nanotube, and three types of polyesters: polybutylene terephthalate, polyethylene terephthalate, and liquid crystal polymer. It was found that the volume resistivities of injection-molded composites containing 2 phr polyester significantly decreased because of the transesterification reaction between the polycarbonate and polyester. The resulting polycarbonate-polyester random block copolymer kept the conductive networks intact because of the preferential affinity of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with polyester. This study showed that incorporating polyester with polycarbonate-multi-walled carbon nanotube increases the electrical conductivity of injection-molded polycarbonate/multi-walled carbon nanotube nanocomposites to a great extent.