Studies on Thermal and Dynamic Viscoelastic Behaviors of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes-reinforced Epoxy Matrix Composites

In this work, the effect of chemical treatment of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) on glass transition temperature (Tg), thermal stability, and dynamic viscoelastic behaviors of MWNTs-reinforced epoxy matrix composites has been studied by differencial scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) measurements. The MWNTs were chemically treated with 35 wt% H3PO4 (A-MWNTs) or 35 wt% KOH (B-MWNTs) solutions and the changes of surface properties of chemically treated MWNTs were examined by pH, acid and base values, Fourier transfer-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The chemical treatments based on acid and base reactions led to a significant change of surface characteristics and chemical compositions of the MWNTs, especially A-MWNTs/epoxy composites had higher thermal stability and dynamic viscoelastic properties than those of B-MWNTs and non-treated MWNTs/epoxy composites. These results were probably due to the improvement of interfacial bonding strength, resulting from the acid-base interaction and hydrogen bonding between the epoxy resins and the MWNT fillers.