Nano Express
Decoration of multi-walled carbon nanotubes by polymer wrapping and its application in MWCNT/polyethylene composites
Author affiliations
Material and Chemical Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, 31040, Taiwan
Citation and License
Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:240 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-240
Published: 6 May 2012Abstract
We dispersed the non-covalent functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a polymer dispersant and obtained a powder of polymer-wrapped CNTs. The UV–vis absorption spectrum was used to investigate the optimal weight ratio of the CNTs and polymer dispersant. The powder of polymer-wrapped CNTs had improved the drawbacks of CNTs of being lightweight and difficult to process, and it can re-disperse in a solvent. Then, we blended the polymer-wrapped CNTs and polyethylene (PE) by melt-mixing and produced a conductive masterbatch and CNT/PE composites. The polymer-wrapped CNTs showed lower surface resistivity in composites than the raw CNTs. The scanning electron microscopy images also showed that the polymer-wrapped CNTs can disperse well in composites than the raw CNTs.
