Tensile behaviour of carbon nanotube/polypropylene composite material

Abstract

The tensile behaviour of the polypropylene (PP) material reinforced by multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was characterised by mechanical testing. Two different MWCNT weight ratios, namely 2 and 5%, were considered. The strains were measured using strain gauges and a digital image correlation system. The results from mechanical tests were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An increase in the average Young's modulus of 20?29 and 25?19% and in average maximum stress of 26?13 and 33?31% was obtained for the 2 and 5 wt-% MWCNT/PP specimens respectively. The Young's modulus and maximum stress of the MWCTN/ PP specimens show a considerable scatter, which is attributed to the varying dispersion and agglomeration size. For specimens with mechanical properties lower than the average values, SEM interpretation revealed poor dispersion and formation of large agglomerations.

Finite element modeling of carbon nanotube agglomerates in polymers

“…In a previous study [10] the tensile behavior of the Plasticyl TM PP2001 material has been characterized experimentally. This is a PP material reinforced by multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs).…”

“…For demonstration reasons, the model was developed on the basis of the CNT/PP material. The values of design parameters were determined from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images presented in [10]. This was also necessary because one of the objectives of the present work is to use the RUC as a module of a two-scale model to evaluate the Young's modulus of the CNT/PP material.…”

“…It has been well recognized from experiments and microscope observations that CNT agglomerates act as defects causing, in the worst scenario, a reduction in the mechanical properties of neat polymer [2][3][4], and in the best scenario, a smaller than the desired increase in the properties [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Besides recognition of the negative effect of CNT agglomerates, little has been done on the understanding of the role of agglomerates' geometrical characteristics.…”

Computation of mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of CNT/polymer multifunctional nanocomposites using numerical and analytical models

“…For example, a multifunctional material could be a load-bearing material with excellent thermal and electrical properties providing the structure enhanced resistance to lighting strike and great shielding effectiveness against electromagnetic interference [1]. Nanocomposites (polymers filled by carbon nanotubes (CNTs)) could achieve all these functions due to their excellent mechanical [2][3][4][5][6], thermal [7][8][9] and electrical [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] assigned by the CNTs.…”

“…Early experimental studies [6,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] have revealed that the properties of CNT/polymer nanocomposites are governed by several material parameters and processing factors and in some cases might be contradictory. Therefore, the development of multifunctional nanocomposites must undergo a proper design and optimization phase which can be performed either by repeated manufacturing trials and physical testing or by virtual testing.…”