Temperature dependence of electrical conductivity in double-wall and multi-wall carbon nanotube/polyester nanocomposites

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate temperature dependence of electrical conductivity of carbon nanotube (CNT)/polyester nanocomposites from room temperature to 77 K using four-point probe test method. To produce nanocomposites, various types and amounts of CNTs (0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 wt.%) were dispersed via 3-roll mill technique within a specially formulized resin blend of thermoset polyesters. CNTs used in the study include multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNT) with and without amine functional groups (-NH 2 ). It was observed that the incorporation of carbon nanotubes into resin blend yields electrically percolating networks and electrical conductivity of the resulting nanocomposites increases with increasing amount of nanotubes. However, nanocomposites containing amino functionalized carbon nanotubes exhibit relatively lower electrical conductivity compared to those with non-functionalized carbon nanotubes. To get better interpretation of the mechanism leading to conductive network via CNTs with and without amine functional groups, the experimental results were fitted to fluctuation-induced tunneling through the barriers between the metallic regions model. It was found that the results are in good agreement with prediction of proposed model.

Effect of carbon nanofibers on the cure kinetics of unsaturated polyester resin: Thermal and chemorheological modelling

“…Very limited information is instead available on the effect of carbon-based nanofillers on the cure reaction of UP resins, although the employment of this kind of fillers in an UP matrix has great potential on modifying the electrical, thermal and mechanical behaviour of the unfilled systems [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

Compressive stress-electrical conductivity characteristics of multiwall carbon nanotube networks

“…However, the electric resistance of CNT networks at compression has only been measured in [5,6] and the electric properties of CNT particulate reinforcement of polymers, for instance, in [7,8], The obtained data were analyzed to get an estimate of the resistance of CNT tangles and the contact resistance between nanotubes [5]. The aim to reveal the effect of surfacedoping of MWCNT networks on their pressure sensitivity is pursued in [6].…”

Electrical conductivity of carbon-nanotube/cellulose composite paper

“…8 On the other hand, the FIT model matches the electrical conductivities of multiwalled ͑MW͒ CNT composites. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The electrical conduction through the CNT-CNT junctions dominates the conductivity of CNT network in the FIT model. The tunnel width w and barrier height V 0 can be estimated from two specific temperatures T 0 and T 1 obtained by fitting the FIT law to the measured temperature dependence of the conductivity.…”