Multiscale Interfacial Interactions in Carbon Nanotube–Asphalt Nanocomposites: Implications for Asphalt Pavement Materials

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT)–asphalt nanocomposites are considered to be the next generation of pavement materials; however, the interaction between CNT and asphalt at the interface and the mechanisms of property enhancement are not well understood, which limits the application of CNT–asphalt nanocomposites. In this study, CNT is used as a representative of one-dimensional nanomaterials, and the interfacial multiscale interaction mechanism between CNT and asphalt molecules is investigated by density functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics simulation, atomic force microscopy (AFM), gelation permeation chromatography (GPC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and performance evaluation. It has been shown that CNT and asphalt substrates are very compatible at the atomic scale, mainly due to π–π stacking, mechanical entanglement, and van der Waals forces. The interfacial energy barrier is −2.63 (kcal/mol)/Å2 and the shear barriers are 52.70 MPa, with asphaltene and aromatic making the greatest contribution to interfacial stress transfer. This research provides a theoretical basis for the targeted tuning of properties and establishes the basis for CNT–asphalt nanocomposites for highway applications.

Double Effects of Oxidative Aging on Carbon Nanotube–Asphalt Nanocomposite Interfaces: Enhancement and Deterioration

“…The binding energy of CNT-aged asphaltene 1 was 2.9 Ha, 47.3% smaller than that of CNT-unaged asphaltene 1 (5.5 Ha), as shown in Figure a. Moreover, there was also F-type stacking between CNT-unaged asphaltene 1 (Figure 2a in ref …”

“…The molecular interface morphology of CNT-aged asphaltene 2 is shown in Figure b. CNT-unaged asphaltene 2 showed F-type stacking (Figure 2b in ref …”

“…The interface morphology of CNT-aged asphaltene 3 is shown in Figure c. The CNT-aged asphaltene 3 interface appears to have typical F-type stacking (Figure b), while F-type stacking does not occur between CNT-unaged asphaltene 3 (Figure 1c in ref …”

“…Moreover, the molecular structure of resin 3 was also unchanged. The main details of the atomic interfacial interactions of CNT-unaged saturate and CNT-unaged resin 3 are shown in ref . (Figure 3 and Figure 6 in ref …”

Multiscale Interfacial Interactions in Graphene-Asphalt Nanocomposites: Implications for Asphalt Pavement Material Applications

“…Graphene-asphalt nanocomposite is a typical multicomponent composite material. The stress transfer and charge transfer at the interface are the key factors affecting the performance. , Most of the previous studies attributed the improvement of asphalt performance to the properties or structures of graphene itself and did not reveal the multiscale enhancement mechanism of graphene on asphalt performance, nor did they understand the behavior of graphene-asphalt nanocomposites from the interface perspective. , Moreover, previous studies are often isolated and are not related to macroscopic properties, and it is difficult to construct interface interactions and shear transfer mechanisms at the molecular scale. This hinders the fundamental understanding of performance enhancement of graphene-asphalt nanocomposites.…”