Rheology of carbon nanotube-filled polymers nano composites (I)

Abstract

This final year projectisabout the rheological properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-filled polymer nanocomposites. The polymer nanocomposites investigated were MWCNTs-filled polypropylene (PP), MWCNTs-filled high density Polyethylene (HDPE) and MWCNTs-filled PP &HDPE blend (non-homogenous,immiscible polymer blend). FE-SEM wasused to study the morphology of the MWCNTs-filled polymer nanocomposites. The rheological properties of MWCNTs-filled polymer composites were measured by melt ARES rheometer with parallel plate geometry. Storage modulus G’, loss modulus G”, loss tangent tan δ, complex viscosity Ƞ* and van Gurp-Palmen plots were investigated to study the effect of MWCNTs content on the rheological properties of polymer nanocomposites. MWCNTs/PP and MWCNTs/HDPEnanocomposites showed solution-to-gel transition between 1.5 wt % to 3.0 wt % MWCNTs. MWCNTs/PP+HDPEsolution-to-gel transition were between 0.8 wt % to 3.0 wt %. Further research works were carried out to study the effect of PP : HDPE blend ratio on rheology, as well as how temperature would affect MWCNTs/PP+HDPE blend nanocomposites. It seemed that blend ratio did not affect the solution-to-gel transition and temperature had changed the microstructure of PP+HDPE polymer blend that caused MWCNTs to have negligible effects on rheological properties.