The effect of the static bending persistence length on the mechanical properties of MWNT/Nylon6 nanocomposite fibers by electrospinning

초록

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs)/nylon6 composite nanofibers were fabricated using an electrospinning method, and the mechanical properties were examined. It has been reported that mechanical properties of CNTs/polymer nanofibers depends on the aspect ratio of CNTs according to the Halpin-Tsai equation and Christensen’s equation. However, as-synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have both straight rigid portion and static bending portion. Therefore, a concept of the static bending persistence length (lp) must have influence on the mechanical properties of CNTs/polymer nanofibers. In this study, we chose three different kinds of MWNTs synthesized by different methods to investigate the effect of their lp on the mechanical properties of Nylon6 matrix wherein MWNTs are embedded. An average lp was calculated using SEM images of each MWNTs. The mechanical properties of CNTs/Nylon6 nanofibers were investigated by UTM (Instron® 5567).