Carbon nanotube (CNT) grafted with hyperbranched poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer (CNTD) were used as a multifunctional curing and composite agent of polyurethane (PU) terminated with epoxy units. Amino-functionalized CNT was used as the core for grafting the first generation of PAMAM dendrimer by sequential addition of methyl acrylate and ethylenediamine. Two different epoxy-terminated PUs (PUB and PU-PMDA) were prepared from the reaction of poly(ethylene glycol), excess amounts of hexamethylene diisocyanate, and different chain extenders (1,4-butanediol for PUB and pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) for PU-PMDA), and subsequent end group transformation of the isocyanate groups to epoxy functionalities using glycidol. Fourier transform infrared spectra and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results showed that CNTD was successfully prepared. TGA thermograms revealed that thermal decomposition of composites were carried out in two main steps related to the soft and hard segments. In addition, char content and thermal stability of the composites were increased with increasing the CNTD content. Most importantly, the PMDA chain extender resulted in high thermal stability of the epoxy-terminated PU composites. X-ray diffraction and scanning and transmission electron microscopies presented morphological and structural properties of nanotubes and hybrid composites.

    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experimental
        2.1 Materials
        2.2 Preparation of PAMAM dendrimer-grafted CNT (CNTD)
        2.3 Preparation of epoxy-modified poly(urethane-imide) (PU-PMDA)
        2.4 Preparation of epoxy-modified polyurethane (PU-BD)
        2.5 Preparation of CNTDPU-PMDA and CNTDPU-BD hybrid composites
        2.6 Characterization
    3 Results and discussion
    4 Conclusions
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• Mohammadreza Izadi(Faculty of Polymer Engineering, Sahand University of Technology)
• Hanieh Mardani(Faculty of Polymer Engineering, Sahand University of Technology)
• Hossein Roghani‑Mamaqani(Faculty of Polymer Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Institute of Polymeric Materials, Sahand University of Technology)
• Mehdi Salami‑Kalajahi(Faculty of Polymer Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Institute of Polymeric Materials, Sahand University of Technology)