Single‐walled Carbon Nanotubes Dispersed by CO2 Responsive Surfactants for Fabricating High Conductive Epoxy Composites

Abstract

AbstractThe emerging nanomaterials single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWNTs) with large specific surface area, excellent electrical conductivity and high mechanical strength, has been used to fabricate electronic devices. However, the extremely strong π‐π interactions make SWNTs easy to agglomerate, thus limiting their application. In this work, a novel method was applied to disperse SWNTs by using rigid rosin‐based CO2 responsive surfactant rosin acid dimaleimide choline (R‐BMI‐C). When pH 10.4, SWNTs can be uniformly and stably dispersed, and at pH 6.3, SWNTs aggregated. The dispersed SWNTs was then integrated into diglycidyl ether of bis phenol A (DGEBA) to fabricate high conductive epoxy composites. Their properties were characterized by SEM, TG, high resistivity meters, etc.. The results showed that the modified SWNTs/DGEBA composites obtained an ultra‐low percolation threshold (0.025 wt.%). Compared with the original SWNTs/DGEBA composite, its tensile strength and elastic modulus were enhanced by 17 % and 96 %, respectively, when the SWNTs content was 0.5 wt.%.