Fabrication, characterization, morphological and thermal investigations of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes reinforced epoxy nanocomposites

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-based nanocomposites possess potential applications in electronics and actuators components. Herein, the epoxy-based nanocomposites with various weight percent of oxidized, acylated MWCNTs, unmodified and epoxy modified MWCNTs-epoxy (i.e. 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 wt.%) were successfully synthesized via ultrasonication and fabricated by the solution casting method. The CNTs-reinforced epoxy polymers composites were successfully synthesized by mixing m-MWCNTs with epoxy resin. Different characterization techniques, i.e., Fourier transmission electron microscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermogravimetric analysis (DTg) were carried out to characterize thermal and morphological stabilities of the nanocomposites. FTIR interpretation revealed the complete curing, as well as good interaction and compatibility between the modified fillers and epoxy resins. The SEM micrographs exhibit that m-MwCNTs-epoxy showed good dispersion, interfacial interaction, crack resistance, and adhesion as compared to u-MwCNTs nanocomposites. From the results, it was concluded that the m-MWCNTs could improve the interfacial adhesion between the MWCNTs and polymeric epoxy resins, thus results in highly enhanced thermal and morphological stabilities of the polymeric epoxy materials.