Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/epoxy composites are prepared by a vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) method. The mechanical properties, fracture surface morphologies, and thermal stabilities of these nanocomposites are evaluated for epoxy resins with various amounts of MWCNTs. Composites consisting of different amounts of MWCNTs displayed an increase of the work of adhesion between the MWCNTs and the matrix, which improved both the tensile and impact strengths of the composites. The tensile and impact strengths of the MWCNT/epoxy composite improved by 59 and 562% with 0.3 phr of MWCNTs, respectively, compared to the epoxy composite without MWCNTs. Thermal stability of the 0.3 phr MWCNT/epoxy composite increased compared to other epoxy composites with MWCNTs. The enhancement of the mechanical and thermal properties of the MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites is attributed to improved dispersibility and strong interfacial interaction between the MWCNTs and the epoxy in the composites prepared by VARTM.

As a renewable nanomaterial, cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) isolated from wood grants excellent mechanical properties in developing high performance nanocomposites. This study was undertaken to compare the reinforcing efficiency of two different CNCs, i.e., cellulose nanowhiskers (CNWs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) from hardwood bleached kraft pulp (HW-BKP) as reinforcing agent in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based nanocomposite. The CNWs were isolated by sulfuric acid hydrolysis while the CNFs were isolated by 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation. Based on measurements using transmission electron microscopy, the individual CNWs were about 6.96±0.87 nm wide and 178±55 nm long, while CNFs were 7.07±0.99 nm wide. The incorporation of CNWs and CNFs into the PVA matrix at 5% and 1% levels, respectively, resulted in the maximum tensile strength, indicating different efficiencies of these CNCs in the nanocomposites. Therefore, these results suggest a relationship between the reinforcing potential of CNCs and their physical characteristics, such as their morphology, dimensions, and aspect ratio.

Five vapor-grown carbon nanofiber (VGCNF) reinforced vinyl ester (VE) nanocomposite configurations were fabricated, imaged, and mechanically tested in order to obtain information on the influence and the interactions of the role of the microstructure at lower length scales on the observed continuum level properties/response. Three independent variables (the nanofiber weight fraction and two types of nanofiber mixing techniques) were chosen to be varied from low, middle, and high values at equally spaced intervals. Multiple mixing techniques were studied to gain insight into the effect of mixing on the VGCNF dispersion within the VE matrix. The point count method was used for both lower length-scale imaging techniques to provide quantitative approximations of the magnitude and the distribution of such lower length-scale features. Finally, an inverse relationship was shown to exist between the stiffness and strength properties of the resulting nanocomposites under uniaxial quasistatic compression loading.

Flexible polyurethane/clay porous nanocomposite foams were synthesized using natural and organically modified montmorillonite clays such as bentonite, closite 10A and closite 30B. The content of nanoclays was varied from 1 to 5 wt% of polyol. Dispersion of clay in Polyurethane(PU) matrix was investigated by X-ray diffraction(Cu-Kα rays of wavelength 1.54Å) using an X-ray diffractometer. Also, we determined that the thermal resistance of PU foam increased with added clay, compared to that of pure PU foam. The cell size and the fraction of open cells of the precursor foam were controlled by the addition of clay to the polyurethane foam. Modified clays were found to be more efficient cell openers than the unmodified clay. In addition, the tensile strength and elongation of the polyurethane/clay porous nanocomposites were examined. Increasing clay content increased the mechanical properties of the composites, such as tensile strength, and elongation at break. However, increasing the content over 5 wt% deteriorated the properties of the composites. We found that the nanofillers(bentonite, closite 10A and closite 30B) improved the thermal stability of the nanocomposite foam. The nanocomposite foam containing 3 wt% of closite 30B exhibited the best tensile strength and thermal stability.

The microstructure evolution during sintering of the W-5 wt.%Cu nanocomposite powders was investigated for the purpose of developing a high density W-Cu alloy. The W-5 wt.%Cu nanopowder compact, fully-densified during sintering at 1623 K, revealed a homogeneous microstructure that consists of high contiguity structures of W-W grains and an interconnected Cu phase located along the edges of the W grains. The Vickers hardness of the sintered W-5 wt.%Cu specimen was Hv much higher than that ( Hv) of the conventional heavy alloy. This result is mostly due to the higher contiguity microstructure of the W grains compared to the conventional W heavy alloy.

This work attempted to fabricate organic/inorganic nanocomposite by combining organic cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), isolated by 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxy radical (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation of native cellulose with inorganic nanoclay. The morphology and dimension of CNFs, and tensile properties and thermal stability of CNF/clay nanocomposites were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), tensile test, and thermogravimetry (TG), respectively. TEM observation showed that CNFs were fibrillated structure with a diameter of about 4.86±1.341 nm. Tensile strength and modulus of the hybrid nanocomposite decreased as the clay content of the nanocomposite increased, indicating a poor dispersion of CNFs or inefficient stress transfer between the CNFs and clay. The elongation at break increased at 1% clay level and then continuously decreased as the clay content increased, suggesting increased brittleness. Analysis of TG and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) curves of the nanocomposites identified two thermal degradation peak temperatures (Tp1 and Tp2), which suggested thermal decomposition of the nanocomposites to be a two steps-process. We think that Tp1 values from 219.6℃ to 235℃ resulted from the sodium carboxylate groups in the CNFs, and that Tp2 values from 267℃ to 273.5℃ were mainly responsible for the thermal decomposition of crystalline cellulose in the nanocomposite. An increase in the clay level of the CNF/clay nanocomposite predominately affected Tp2 values, which continuously increased as the clay content increased. These results indicate that the addition of clay improved thermal stability of the CNF/clay nanocomposite but at the expense of nanocomposite’s tensile properties.

Graphite oxide (GO) was produced using the modified Hummer's method. Poly(p-phenylene sulfide) (PPS)/reduced graphite oxide (RGO) composites were prepared by in situ polymerization method. The electrical conductivity of the PPS/RGO composites was no more than 82 S/m. It was found that as GO content increased in the PPS/RGO composites, the crystallization temperature and electrical conductivity of the composites increased and the percolation threshold value was at 5-8 wt% of GO content.

본 연구에서는 분자동역학 전산모사와 유한요소해석 기반의 균질화 기법을 통해 나노복합재의 열전도 특성을 정확하고 효율적으로 예측할 수 있는 순차적 멀티스케일 균질화 해석기법을 제안하였다. 나노입자의 크기효과가 나노복합재의 유효 열전도 특성에 미치는 영향을 조사하기 위해 크기가 다른 구형 나노입자가 첨가된 나노복합재의 열전도 계수를 분자동역 학 전산모사를 통해 예측했고, 그 결과 나노입자의 크기가 작아질수록 계면에서의 Kapitza열저항에 의해 나노복합재의 열 전도 계수가 점차 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 나노입자의 크기효과를 균질화 해석모델을 통해 정확하게 묘사하기 위해 Kapitza 열저항에 의한 계면에서의 온도 불연속 구간과 고분자 기지가 높은 밀도를 가지며 흡착되는 유효계면을 추가 적인 상으로 도입하여 나노복합재를 입자, Kapitza 계면, 유효계면, 기지로 구성된 4상의 연속체 구조로 모델링하였다. 이 후 순차적 멀티스케일 균질화 해석기법을 통해 유효계면의 열전도 계수를 나노복합재의 열전도 계수로부터 역으로 예측 했으며, 이를 입자의 반경에 대한 함수로 근사하였다. 근사 함수를 토대로 다양한 입자 체적분율과 반경에 대한 나노복합 재의 유효 열전도 특성을 예측하였으며, 유효계면에 대한 매개변수 연구를 수행하였다.

In this work, expanded graphite (EG)-reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nanocomposites were prepared by the melt mixing method and the content of the EG was fixed as 2 wt%. The effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as a co-carbon filler on the electrical and mechanical properties of the EG/PET was investigated. The results showed that the electrical and mechanical properties of the EG/PET were significantly increased with the addition of MWCNTs, showing an improvement over those of PET prepared with EG alone. This was most likely caused by the interconnections in the MWCNTs between the EG layers in the PET matrix. It was found that the addition of the MWCNTs into EG/PET led to dense conductive networks for easy electron transfers, indicating a bridge effect of the MWCNTs.

Effects of ethylene-propylene diene monomer (EPDM)/polypropylene (PP), zinc oxide, stearic acid, and clay on the combustive properties based on EDPM/PP were investigated. The EDPM/PP/clay nanocomposites was compounded to prepare specimen for combustive analysis by cone calorimeter (ISO 5660-1). It was found that the specific mass loss rate (SMLR) in the nanocomposites decreased due to the fire resistance compared with unfilled EDPM/PP, while the nanocomposites showed the higher total heat release (THR), higher CO production release, and higher specific extinction area (SEA) than those of virgin EPDM/PP. The stearic acid for softening ruber increased the THR and amount of smoke by itself, combustible.

PVDF was used as a polymeric matrix material in this work. Nickel powders with average particles size of 200 nm or 72 nm were used as fillers. PVDF/metal submicro- and nanocomposites were prepared by means of a mixing in twin screw extruder and planetary ball mill, respectively. All samples were prepared by hot pressing method. Their electrical, thermal and morphological properties were examined by dielectric spectroscopy, DSC, FTIR, XRD, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It was found that all properties of composites were strongly modified depending on the content of metal powders and filler particles size. Particularly, specific volume resistivity of PVDF/Ni composite with 0.2 wt.% of Ni was increased by factor of 1.5~4.

This study investigates the effect of filler content (wt%), presence of interphase and agglomerates on the effective Young's modulus of polypropylene (PP) based nanocomposites reinforced with exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnPTM) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The Young's modulus of the composites is determined using tensile testing based on ASTM D638. The reinforcement/polymer interphase is characterized in terms of width and mechanical properties using atomic force microscopy which is also used to investigate the presence and size of agglomerates. It is found that the interphase has an average width of ~30 nm and modulus in the range of 5 to 12 GPa. The Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model is modified to account for the effect of interphase and filler agglomerates and the model predictions for the effective modulus of the composites are compared to the experimental data. The presented results highlight the need of considering various experimentally observed filler characteristics such as agglomerate size and aspect ratio and presence and properties of interphase in the micromechanical models in order to develop better design tools to fabricate multifunctional polymer nanocomposites with engineered properties.

The effects of geometrical parameters on mechanical properties of graphite-vinylester nanocomposites and their constituents(matrix, reinforcement and interface) are studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Young’s modulii of 1.3TPa and1.16TPa are obtained for graphene layer and for graphite layers respectively. Interfacial shear strength resulting from themolecular dynamic (MD) simulations for graphene-vinylester is found to be 256MPa compared to 126MPa for graphite-vinylester. MD simulations prove that exfoliation improves mechanical properties of graphite nanoplatelet vinylesternanocomposites. Also, the effects of bromination on the mechanical properties of vinylester and interfacial strength of thegraphene–brominated vinylester nanocomposites are investigated. MD simulation revealed that, although there is minimal effectof bromination on mechanical properties of pure vinylester, bromination tends to enhance interfacial shear strength betweengraphite–brominated vinylester/graphene-brominated vinylester in a considerable magnitude.

In this work, the effect of glycidyl methacrylate grafted multi-walled carbon nanotubes (GMA-MWCNTs) on the viscoelastic behaviors of polypropylene (PP) based nanocomposites was studied. The GMA-MWCNTs/PP was prepared using a bravender at 200℃ by melt mixing as a function of GMA-MWCNT content. The viscoelastic behaviors of GMA-MWCNTs/PP nanocomposites were measured by a rheometer. It was found that the GMA-MWCNTs were homogeneously dispersed in the PP matrix. The GMA-MWCNTs/PP nanocomposites showed higher storage modulus, loss modulus, and shear viscosity compared to pure PP nanocomposites and the maximum value was shown at 2.0 wt% GMA-MWCNTs loading. These results were probably attributed to the strong interfacial interaction between the GMA-MWCNT and the PP matrix.

Graphene is one of the most promising materials for many applications. It can be used in a variety of applications not only as a reinforcement material for polymer to obtain a combination of desirable mechanical, electrical, thermal, and barrier properties in the resulting nanocomposite but also as a component in energy storage, fuel cells, solar cells, sensors, and batteries. Recent research at Michigan State University has shown that it is possible to exfoliate natural graphite into graphite nanoplatelets composed entirely of stacks of graphene. The size of the platelets can be controlled from less than 10 nm in thickness and diameters of any size from sub-micron to 15 microns or greater. In this study we have investigated the influence of melt compounding processing on the physical properties of a polyamide 6 (PA6) nanocomposite reinforced with exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnP). The morphology, electrical conductivity, and mechanical properties of xGnP-PA6 nanocomposite were characterized with electrical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, AC impedance, and mechanical properties. It was found that counter rotation (CNR) twins crew processed xGnP/PA6 nanocomposite had similar mechanical properties with co-rotation (CoR) twin screw processed or with CoR conducted with a screw design modified for nanoparticles (MCoR). Microscopy showed that the CNR processed nanocomposite had better xGnP dispersion than the (CoR) twin screw processed and modified screw (MCoR) processed ones. It was also found that the CNR processed nanocomposite at a given xGnP content showed the lowest graphite X-ray diffraction peak at 26.5˚ indicating better xGnP dispersion in the nanocomposite. In addition, it was also found that the electrical conductivity of the CNR processed 12 wt.% xGnP-PA6 nanocomposite is more than ten times higher than the CoR and MCoR processed ones. These results indicate that better dispersion of an xGnP-PA6 nanocomposite is attainable in CNR twins crew processing than conventional CoR processing.

In this work, the effect of aminized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (NH-MWNTs) on the mechanical interfacial properties of epoxy nanocomposites was investigated by means of fracture toughness, critical stress intensity factor (KIC), and impact strength testing, and their morphology was examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the incorporation of amine groups onto MWNTs was confirmed by the FT-IR and Raman spectra. The mechanical interfacial properties of the epoxy nanocomposites were remarkably improved with increasing the NH-MWNT content. It was probably attributed to the strong physical interaction between amine groups of NH-MWNTs and epoxide groups of epoxy resins. The SEM micrographs showed that NH-MWNTs were uniformly embed and bonded with epoxy resins, resulted in the prevention of the deformation and crack propagation in the NH-MWNTs/epoxy nanocomposites.

We prepared polycarbonate (PC)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposites by co-rotating twin screw extruder at 533 K. Thermal analysis results indicate that the miscibility of PC and PMMA is enhanced by MWCNTs. Bead necklace-like morphology of PMMA-rich phase is observed in PC/PMMA/MWCNT nanocomposites with increasing PMMA weight fraction due to the bead necklace-like morphology. The tensile strength of PC/PMMA (75/25)/MWCNT (1 wt.%) nanocomposite is 3% higher than those of PC/PMMA (75/25) alloy. Suppression of die swell by MWCNT filler is observed in the melt flow of PC/PMMA/MWCNT nanocomposites during extrusion.

The characteristics of all polymer composites containing carbon materials are determined by four factors: component properties, composition, structure and interfacial interactions. The most important filler characteristics are particle size, size distribution, specific surface area and particle shape. As a consequence, in this paper we discuss the aspects of the mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of composites with different fillers of carbon black, carbon nanotube (CNT), graphene and graphite and focus on the relationship between factors and properties, as mentioned above. Accordingly, we fabricate rubber composites that contain various carbon materials in carbon black-based and silica based-SBR matrixes with dual phase fillers and use scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, a rhometer, an Instron tensile machine, and a thermal conductivity analyzer to evaluate composites' mechanical, fatigue, thermal, and electronic properties. In mechanical properties, hardness and 300%-modulus of graphene-composite are sharply increased in all cases due to the larger specific surface. Also, it has been found that the thermal conductivity of the CNT-composite is higher than that of any of the other composites and that the composite with graphene has the best electrical properties.

Si nanowire/multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposite arrays were synthesized. Vertically aligned Si nanowire arrays were fabricated by Ag nanodendrite-assisted wet chemical etching of n-type wafers using HF/AgNO3 solution. The composite structure was synthesized by formation of a sheath of carbon multilayers on a Si nanowire template surface through a thermal CVD process under various conditions. The results of Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and high resolution transmission electron microcopy demonstrate that the obtained nanocomposite has a Si nanowire core/carbon nanotube shell structure. The remarkable feature of the proposed method is that the vertically aligned Si nanowire was encapsulated with a multiwalled carbon nanotube without metal catalysts, which is important for nanodevice fabrication. It can be expected that the introduction of Si nanowires into multiwalled carbon nanotubes may significantly alter their electronic and mechanical properties, and may even result in some unexpected material properties. The proposed method possesses great potential for fabricating other semiconductor/CNT nanocomposites.

In this work, the effect of co-carbon fillers on the electrical and mechanical properties of epoxy nanocomposites was investigated. The graphite nanosheets (GNs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were used as co-carbon fillers. The results showed that the electrical conductivity of the epoxy nanocomposites showed a considerable increase upon an addition of MWNTs when GNs were fixed at 2 wt.%. This indicated that low content GNs formed the bulk conductive network and then MWNTs added were intercalated between the GN layers, resulted in the formation of additional conductive pathway. Furthermore, the flexural strength of the epoxy nanocomposites was enhanced with increasing the MWNT content. It was probably attributed to the flexible MWNTs compared with rigid GNs, resulted in the enhancement of the mechanical properties.