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A Novel Strategy to Incorporate Carbon Nanotubes into Thermoplastic Matrices
Author(s) -
Pötschke Petra,
Pegel Sven,
Claes Michael,
Bonduel Daniel
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.200700637
Subject(s) - polycarbonate , materials science , polyamide , carbon nanotube , thermoplastic , dispersion (optics) , polymer , composite material , polyethylene , percolation threshold , polymer chemistry , electrical resistivity and conductivity , physics , electrical engineering , engineering , optics
Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) are introduced into thermoplastic matrices (polycarbonate and polyamide) by melt blending using polyethylene (PE) based concentrates with high MWNT loadings (24–44 wt.‐%). MWNT surfaces were treated with a metallocene‐based complex to afford the in‐situ polymerization of ethylene directly from the surface. The resulting concentrates showed excellent MWNT pre‐dispersion. Due to the high interfacial energy between MWNT and PE, the nanotubes migrate into matrix polymers with lower interfacial energies, like polycarbonate and polyamide, and thereby remain in their excellent dispersion state. Thus, electrical percolation is achieved at lower MWNT contents as compared to direct incorporation. For polycarbonate it is shifted from 0.75 to 0.25 wt.‐%.