Abstract
Nanocomposites of single-walled carbon nanotubes dispersed within polyvinylchloride have been obtained by using the solution path. High-power sonication was utilized to achieve a good dispersion of carbon nanotubes. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that during the synthesis, processing, or thermal analysis of these nanocomposites the released chlorine is functionalizing the single-walled carbon nanotubes. The loading of polyvinylchloride by single-walled carbon nanotubes increases the glass transition temperature of the polymeric matrix, demonstrating the interactions between macromolecular chains and filler. Wide Angle X-Ray Scattering data suggested a drop of the crystallite size and of the degree of crystallinity as the concentration of single-walled carbon nanotubes is increased. The in situ chlorination and amorphization of nanotube during the synthesis (sonication step) is confirmed by Raman spectroscopy.
Highlights
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are amazing onedimensional systems, characterized by semiconducting to conducting electrical conductivity [1, 2], excellent thermal conductivities [3], extremely large aspect ratio [3], impressing mechanical features [4, 5], and high thermal stability [6]
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) data were obtained using a TA Instrument TGA 500 instrument, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) investigations were performed with a TA Instrument DSC Q500, Raman investigations were done by using a Bruker Sentera microRaman operating at 785 nm, and Wide Angle X-Rays Scattering (WAXS) analysis was performed by a Bruker 8 Discovery spectrometer
Nanocomposites of polyvinylchloride-single-walled carbon nanotubes (PVC-SWNTs) containing various weight fractions of SWNTs ranging from 0% to 20% wt. were obtained
Summary
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are amazing onedimensional systems, characterized by semiconducting to conducting electrical conductivity [1, 2], excellent thermal conductivities [3], extremely large aspect ratio [3], impressing mechanical features (such as a Young modulus of the order of 1 TPa) [4, 5], and high thermal stability (mainly in inert atmosphere such as nitrogen) [6]. Raman lines are used to characterize carbon nanotubes and to monitor the interactions between nanotubes and polymeric matrices. Despite their restrictive cost, SWNTs are the filler of choice for many polymer-based nanocomposites [8, 9], due to their large aspect ratio, which determines a very low percolation threshold for the electrical conductivity and a larger enhancement of structural properties. As carbon nanotubes and graphene are either semiconducting or conducting, the addition of such carbon nanostructures to insulating polymeric matrices increases the electrical conductivity (up to the point where electrostatic, electromagnetic shielding, or even electrical conduction is ignited in the polymer-based nanocomposites) [11,12,13,14]
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