Effect of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes Additions on Its Dispersion Characteristics in Titanium Oxides

Abstract

The transition metal oxides are inorganic nanomaterials with exclusive properties. However, metal oxides cannot exceptionally accomplish all requirements to develop new technologies as they are brittle and have low fracture toughness, which has motivated researchers to adopt novel techniques in enhancing their properties. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have drawn attention in engineering fields due to their unique structural, electrical and mechanical properties. This work aims to achieve a homogeneous dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by investigating the effect of increased MWCNTs concentration in titanium oxide. The MWCNTs (0.5, 1, 1.5 wt.%) were dispersed in titanium oxide using high energy ball milling (HEBM) technique at a lower milling speed of 100 rpm for 6 h. The composite powders were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to understand the uniformity of dispersion, interfacial reaction and structural integrity of the MWCNTs after dispersion. The results showed that the MWCNTs detangles at a lower concentration of 0.5 wt%, with an increase in MWCNTs there is the formation of entanglement. In addition, further analysis on structural integrity showed minimal structure damage due to lower speed adopted for HEBM technique, and there were no interfacial reactions favoured.