Epoxy resins carbon nanotube reinforcement

As discussed in Chapter 6, the incorporation of reinforcing agents or fillers into plastic formulations can, in some but not all cases, lead to variations in the molecular stability of plastics and also their thermal and thermooxidation stability. Thus, it has been observed that the addition of silica to polytetrafluoroethylene did not adversely affect polymer stability, while the incorporation of 25% of organically modified silica into polyethylene led to a decrease in weight loss of the plastic from 80% to 33.7%. The incorporation of carbon nanotubes in epoxy resins unproved their mechanical and thermal properties. It is fair to say that the effect of reinforcing agents on the thermal and thermooxidative stability of polymers must always be bom in mind when selecting polymer formulations for a particular application. 

General discussions of the effect of reinforcing agents on the thermal properties of polymers include glass fiber-reinforced polyethylene terephthalate [28], multiwalled carbon nanotube-reinforced liquid crystalline polymer [29], polysesquioxane [30, 31], polynrethane [31], epoxy resins [32], polyethylene [33], montmorillonite clay-reinforced polypropylene [34], polyethylene [35], polylactic acid [36, 37], calcium carbonate-filled low-density polyethylene [38], and barium sulfate-filled polyethylene [39]. 

Liu LQ, Wagner HD. Rubbery and glassy epoxy resins reinforced with carbon nanotubes. Compos Sci Technol September 2005 65 1861-8. 

Carbon nanotubes are being increasingly used for the reinforcement of plastics, including epoxy resins [57-59], polyamides [55, 60-62], polyimides [63], poly-silsesquioxane [64], polycaprolactam [65], polyethylene oxide [66], polyethylene [67, 55,62], polyurethane [67], ethylene-vinyl acetate [69-73], polyhydroxybutylene-co-hydroxyvalerate [75], ethylene-propylene diene terpolymer [73], and sulfonated polyarylene sulfone [53]. 

M. J. Assael, K. D. Antoniadis, and D. Tzetzis, "The use of the transient hot-wire technique for measurement of the thermal conductivity of an epoxy-resin reinforced with glass fibres and/or carbon multi-walled nanotubes," Composites Science and Technology, vol. 68, pp. 3178-3183,2008. 

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