Abstract
Huntsman–Merrimack MIRALON® carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a novel, highly entangled, commercially available, and scalable format of nanotubes. As-received and acid-treated CNTs were added to aerospace grade epoxy (CYCOM® 977-3), and the composites were characterized. The epoxy resin is expected to infiltrate the network of the CNTs and could improve mechanical properties. Epoxy composites were tested for flexural and viscoelastic properties and the as-received and acid treated CNTs were characterized using Field-Emission Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, and Thermogravimetric Analysis. Composites containing 0.4 wt% as-received CNTs showed an increase in flexural strength, from 136.9 MPa for neat epoxy to 147.5 MPa. In addition, the flexural modulus increased from 3.88 GPa for the neat epoxy to 4.24 GPa and 4.49 GPa for the 2.0 wt% and 3.0 wt% as-received CNT/epoxy composites, respectively. FE-SEM micrographs indicated good dispersion of the CNTs in the as-received CNT/epoxy composites and the 10 M nitric acid 6 h treatment at 120 °C CNT/epoxy composites. CNTs treated with 10 M nitric acid for 6 h at 120 °C added oxygen containing functional groups (C–O, C=O, and O=C–O) and removed iron catalyst present on the as-received CNTs, but the flexural properties were not improved compared to the as-received CNT/epoxy composites.
Highlights
The carbon nanotube (CNT) is an ultra-strong and ultra-stiff material due to its covalent sp2 bonds formed between carbon atoms (Elastic modulus [E] = 1 TPa, tensile strength [σ] = 50–500 GPa) [1,2,3]
This paper focuses on a nitric or nitric/sulfuric acid treatment, which is a mechanism that is well established in the literature for the introduction of oxygen containing functional groups onto the CNT surface [13,14,15]
An objective of this research was to determine the effects of adding as-received MIRALON® CNT pulp to CYCOM® 977-3 epoxy on flexural mechanical properties and viscoelastic properties
Summary
The carbon nanotube (CNT) is an ultra-strong and ultra-stiff material due to its covalent sp bonds formed between carbon atoms (Elastic modulus [E] = 1 TPa, tensile strength [σ] = 50–500 GPa) [1,2,3]. Due to these outstanding properties, CNTs have been added to many composite materials. Novel bulk formats of CNT assemblages, such as sheets, tapes, and yarns, have more recently been made available which could be used for manufacturing macro-scale CNT composites for aerospace applications. Due to the scalability of these unique CNTs, there is considerable interest from the aerospace community in their use on a commercial scale
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