Electrical conductive double-walled carbon nanotubes--Silica glass nanocomposites prepared by the sol-gel process and spark plasma sintering

摘要

The electrical conductivity of suspensions in liquid of several kinds of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is measured. Raw and soft-func-tionalized double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) appear to be the most promising for achieving a low electrical percolation threshold. A 0.35 vol. percent DWCNTs-SiO_2 nanocomposite is prepared by the sol-gel process and densified by spark plasma sintering. The obtained material presents a fairly good dispersion of DWCNTs and its electrical conductivity (10~4 S cm) is six orders of magnitude higher than that previously reported for 1 vol. percent multi-walled CNTs-SiO_2.