Mechanical properties of hybrid polymer nanotube systems

In this work, mechanical properties of hybrid materials fabricated from nanotubes and commercially available polymers were investigated. It was found that, by adding various concentrations of arc discharge multiwall nanotubes, both Young's modulus and hardness increased by factors of 1.8 and 1.6 at 1wt% in PVA and 2.8 and 2.0 at 8wt% in PVK, in reasonable agreement with the Halpin-Tsai theory. Furthermore, the presence of the nanotubes was found to nucleate crystallization of the PVA. This crystal growth is thought to enhance matrix-nanotube stress transfer. In addition, microscopy studies suggest extremely strong interfacial bonding in the PVA-based composite. This is manifested by the fracture of the polymer rather that the polymer-nanotube interface. The dependence of the polymer nanotube interfacial interaction on host polymer was studied by intercalating various polymers (PVA, PVP and PS) into single wall nanotube buckypaper. Even for short soak times, significant polymer intercalation into existing free volume was observed. Depending on the polymer and the level of intercalation tensile tests on intercalated sheets showed that the Young's modulus, strength and toughness increased by factors of 3, 9 and 28, respectively. This indicates that the intercalated polymer enhances load transmission between nanotubes due the significant stress transfer. The level of stress transfer was observed to scale with polymer hydrophobicity as expected.