Polymer composites with aligned carbon nanotubes for high performance

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effect of adding ferromagnetic CNT, under the influence of an externally applied magnetic field of 0.062 ± 0.003T, on reducing the electrical resistivity of a silicone polymer sample and also to increase the storage modulus of the same sample. Due to the high viscosity of silicone, it was found that the range of ferromagnetic CNT that could be added to silicone without percolation was small. A greater amount of ferromagnetic CNT had to be used to significantly reduce the electrical resistivity, whereas small amounts of ferromagnetic CNT had the effect of increasing the storage modulus.