Influence of Surface Treatment of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes on Interfacial Interaction of Nanocomposites

In this work, the effect of aminized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (NH-MWNTs) on the mechanical interfacial properties of epoxy nanocomposites was investigated by means of fracture toughness, critical stress intensity factor (KIC), and impact strength testing, and their morphology was examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the incorporation of amine groups onto MWNTs was confirmed by the FT-IR and Raman spectra. The mechanical interfacial properties of the epoxy nanocomposites were remarkably improved with increasing the NH-MWNT content. It was probably attributed to the strong physical interaction between amine groups of NH-MWNTs and epoxide groups of epoxy resins. The SEM micrographs showed that NH-MWNTs were uniformly embed and bonded with epoxy resins, resulted in the prevention of the deformation and crack propagation in the NH-MWNTs/epoxy nanocomposites.