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High electromagnetic interference shielding with high electrical conductivity through selective dispersion of multiwall carbon nanotube in poly (ε‐caprolactone)/ MWCNT composites
Author(s) -
Bera Ranadip,
Maiti Sandip,
Khatua Bhanu Bhusan
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.42161
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , carbon nanotube , percolation threshold , electromagnetic shielding , nanocomposite , nanotube , electrical resistivity and conductivity , caprolactone , dispersion (optics) , percolation (cognitive psychology) , bead , conductivity , polycaprolactone , polymer , copolymer , physics , engineering , optics , electrical engineering , chemistry , neuroscience , biology
This study presents the preparation of electrically conducting poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL)/multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) composites with very low percolation threshold ( p c ). The method involves solution blending of PCL and MWCNT in the presence of commercial PCL beads. The PCL beads were added into high viscous PCL/MWCNT mixture during evaporation of solvent. Here, the used commercial PCL polymer beads act as an ‘excluded volume’ in the solution blended PCL/MWCNT region. Thus, the effective concentration of the MWCNT dramatically increases in the solution blended region and a strong interconnected continuous conductive network path of CNT−CNT is assumed throughout the matrix phase with the addition of PCL bead which plays a crucial role to improve the electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) and electrical conductivity at very low MWCNT loading. Thus, high EMI SE value (∼23.8 dB) was achieved at low MWCNT loading (1.8 wt %) in the presence of 70 wt % PCL bead and the high electrical conductivity of ∼2.49×10 −2 S cm −1 was achieved at very low MWCNT loading (∼0.15 wt %) with 70 wt % PCL bead content in the composites. The electrical conductivity gradually increased with increasing the PCL bead concentration, as well as, MWCNT loading in the composites. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132 , 42161.