Abstract
The addition of a conductive material into polymer improves its mechanical properties, electrical properties and thermal conductivity and bestows it with good self-sensing and self-adjusting properties. In this study, carbon nanotubes-modified epoxy resins (CNTs-EP) were successfully prepared with good dispersion through the combined methods of three roller rolling, ultrasonic processing and adding surfactant. Tests were conducted to evaluate the resistivity of unloaded modified epoxy resins with different mixing amounts of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), to determine the conductive percolation threshold. On the basis of the test results, a series of monotonic and cyclic uniaxial tensile tests were then conducted to investigate the force sensitivity of the conductivity of epoxy resins modified with different mixing amounts of CNTs. The relationship between the stress and the resistivity under various mixing amounts was studied, indicating that the resistance response could play a good warning role on the damage of the modified polymer material.
Highlights
The application scope of polymer matrix materials has expanded from the aerospace and military industries to commercial airplanes, automobiles, civil structures and leisure/sport equipment by using them to replace traditional ceramic and metal-based materials [1,2,3]
The resistivity tests were divided into seven groups with different mixing amounts of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) resistivity into groups with different mixing amounts of
The results showed without CNTs, the addition of carbon fiberHowever, powders when had little influence test on the resistivity of that the specimens compared to the pure resin case
Summary
The application scope of polymer matrix materials has expanded from the aerospace and military industries to commercial airplanes, automobiles, civil structures and leisure/sport equipment by using them to replace traditional ceramic and metal-based materials [1,2,3]. The modified polymer material will be refactored under external forces within the conductive pathway, indicating certain force sensitive properties Due to their good flexibility and processability, polymer conductive composites are often used as a sensing material in force sensitive sensors. Regarding the electrical properties of CNTs-EP, a lot of studies have been done to achieve a lower conductive percolation threshold in the matrix and verified that a low mixing amount of CNTs can make the epoxy resin more conductive [21,22,23,24]. Mechanical tests have been conducted on the resin matrices modified with different mixing amounts of CNTs. It was found that a certain amount of CNTs can effectively enhance the mechanical properties of the matrix material such as the elastic modulus and the tensile strength [25,26]. Uniaxial tensile tests and cyclic loading tests were performed on the specimens with various mixing amounts of CNTs to reveal the relationship between the mixing amount and the force sensitivity of the conductivity of the modified epoxy resins
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