Colloidal Heterocoagulation for Preparation of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube/PMMA Nanocomposite Started with Bulk Resin

Abstract

Recently, a heterocoagulation process has been emerged as a new technique to prepare polymer/nano-filler composites in water. Conventionally, heterocoagulation has been utilized only for as-prepared emulsion latex. However, we aimed to extend heterocoagulation process in order to use commercial polymer resin. Bulk PMMA resin was dissolved in a solvent and precipitated in SDS aqueous solution to make a stable colloid system. After removing the solvent, the PMMA dispersion was mixed with CTAB-stabilized MWCNT dispersion. A heterocoagulation process was conducted at room temperature. Upon the completion of the heterocoagulation, all MWCNTs were embedded into PMMA matrix. Experimental results show that MWCNTs were uniformly distributed in PMMA and their thermal stability was significantly improved. More importantly, the percolation threshold for the electrical conductivity was achieved at a low concentration (1 wt%) of MWCNT using this heterocoagulation process.

Keywords:

• Carbon nanotube
• colloid
• electrical conductivity
• heterocoagulation
• PMMA

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Regional Innovation Center for Environmental Technology of Thermal Plasma (ETTP) at Inha University designated by MKE.

Notes

*C.V.: The coefficient of variation.