Electron-Beam Irradiation Effect on Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Nylon-6 Nanocomposite Fibers Infused with Diamond and Diamond Coated Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Nylon-6 is an engineering plastic with excellent properties and processability, which are essential in several industrial applications. The addition of filler such as diamond (DN) and diamond coated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form molded composites may increase the range of Nylon-6 applications due to the resulting increase in strength. The effects of electron-beam irradiation on these thermoplastic nanocomposites are either increase in the cross-linking or causes chain scission. In this study, DN-coated CNTs were synthesized using the sonochemical technique in the presence of cationic surfactant cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The DN-coated CNTs nanoparticles and diamond nanoparticles were then introduced into Nylon-6 polymer through a melt extrusion process to form nanocomposite fibers. They were further tested for their mechanical (Tensile) and thermal properties (thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)). These composites were further exposed to the electron-beam (160[Formula: see text]kGy, 132[Formula: see text]kGy and 99[Formula: see text]kGy) irradiation using a 1.5[Formula: see text]MeV electron-beam accelerator, at room temperature, in the presence of air and tested for their thermal and mechanical properties. The best ultimate tensile strength was found to be 690[Formula: see text]MPa and 864[Formula: see text]MPa irradiated at 132 for DN/CNTs/Nylon-6 and Diamond/Nylon-6 nanocomposite fiber as compared to 346[Formula: see text]MPa and 321[Formula: see text]MPa for DN/CNTs/Nylon-6 and Diamond/Nylon-6 nanocomposite fiber without irradiation. The neat Nylon-6 tensile strength was 240[Formula: see text]MPa. These results are consistent with the activation energy calculated from TGA graphs. DSC analysis result shows that the slight increase in glass transition temperature ([Formula: see text]) and decrease in melting temperature ([Formula: see text]) which was expected from high electron-beam radiation dose.