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In Situ Polymerized pCBT Composites with Aligned Carbon Nanotube Buckypaper: Structure and Properties
Author(s) -
Li Zhongrui,
Downes Rebekah,
Liang Zhiyong
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201400443
Subject(s) - buckypaper , materials science , carbon nanotube , composite material , polymerization , in situ polymerization , ultimate tensile strength , composite number , nanotube , thermoplastic , pyrolysis , polymer , chemical engineering , engineering
High‐performance carbon‐nanotube‐based thermoplastic composites are synthesized through in situ polymerization of cyclic butylene terephthalate (pCBT) on aligned carbon nanotube buckypaper. The initial results show that the buckypaper/pCBT composites have a tensile strength of approximately 600 MPa and a modulus of 96 GPa due to the aligned nanotubes in the composite acting as a framework and the in situ polymerization resulting in increased interfacial interactions between the pCBT chains and nanotubes. The buckypaper/pCBT composites also demonstrate significantly improved thermal (70 W m −1 °C −1 ) and electric conductivities (526 S cm −1 ), as well as thermoelectric power (Seebeck coefficient of 64 μV °C −1 ). With low mass density, these combined excellent multi‐properties indicate that the composites can act as multifunctional materials in numerous applications.