Octadecylamine-Grafted Graphene Oxide Helps the Dispersion of Carbon Nanotubes in Ethylene Vinyl Acetate.

Li-Chuan Jia,Ding-Xiang Yan,Zhong-Han Jiao,Zhong-Ming Li

doi:10.3390/polym9090397

Abstract

In this paper, the dispersion of carbon nanotube (CNT) in ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) is demonstrated to be significantly improved by the addition of octadecylamine (ODA)-grafted graphene oxide (GO) (GO–ODA). Compared to the CNT/EVA composite, the resultant GO–ODA/CNT/EVA (G–CNT/EVA) composite shows simultaneous increases in tensile strength, Young’s modulus and elongation at break. Notably, the elongation at break of the G–CNT/EVA composite still maintains a relatively high value of 1268% at 2.0 wt % CNT content, which is more than 1.6 times higher than that of CNT/EVA composite (783%). This should be attributed to the homogeneous dispersion of CNT as well as the strong interfacial interaction between CNT and EVA originating from the solubilization effect of GO–ODA. Additionally, the G–CNT/EVA composites exhibit superior electrical conductivity at low CNT contents but inferior value at high CNT contents, compared to that for the CNT/EVA composite, which depends on the balance of CNT dispersion and the preservation of insulating GO–ODA. Our strategy provides a new pathway to prepare high performance polymer composites with well-dispersed CNT.

Highlights

Carbon nanotube (CNT) has been regarded as a very promising nanofiller for polymer matrices to achieve high performance and multifunction, due to its extraordinary mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
The broad peak appearing at 3256 cm−1 is assigned to the hydroxyl groups. When it comes to graphene oxide (GO)–ODA, the existence of the octadecyl chain is clearly demonstrated because of the emerging peaks at 2919 cm−1 and 2850 cm−1 (–CH2 stretching in the octadecyl chain) as well as the peak at 720 cm−1 [41,42]
3c,d), mainly due to the intrinsic plays a role of compatilizer for ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), which facilitates the. These results indicate that GO–ODA plays a role of compatilizer for CNTs and EVA, which facilitates dispersion of compared with the smooth fractured surface of

Summary

Introduction

Carbon nanotube (CNT) has been regarded as a very promising nanofiller for polymer matrices to achieve high performance and multifunction, due to its extraordinary mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The resultant performances show much lower efficiency than expected though significant efforts have been made. This is mainly attributed to the fact that CNTs agglomerate in polymer matrices because of the high aspect ratio and strong van der Waals interactions, which would greatly limit their utilization [18,19].

Methods

Results

Conclusion