Polymer Transcrystallization Induced by Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Fibers

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials provide applications in a wide variety of roles, including as reinforcing materials, thermal and electrical conductors, and optical absorbers. While their benefits can be applied as bulk materials, their implementation into polymer materials as fillers allows for efficient enhanced properties with a small amount of material. These blended materials, referred to as nanocomposites, integrate the beneficial properties of both the polymer and carbon nanomaterials to create cheap solutions to construction and product development that bulk materials could not accomplish. However, major challenges must be overcome to allow for their adoption in industry. Among these problems is the interfacial interactions between the nanomaterials with the polymer matrix. Weak interactions between fillers and polymer can cause the fillers to aggregate out of the polymer phase and greatly reduce the transfer of load, heat, or electricity from the polymer to the filler. As a result, studies must be done to understand and improve these interactions. In order to study these interactions, transcrystals can serve as a model for observing the interface between polymer and filler. Transcrystals are oriented lamella, which are linearly-organized folded polymer chains, forming from a heterogeneous nucleation site at a substrate or a fiber. Transcrystals formed from fibers can