Processing Carbon Nanotube/Thermoplastic Composites

Carbon nanotube (CNT)/thermoplastic composites have
many potential applications. However, processing
CNT/thermoplastic composites has been extremely
challenging due to the nano scale of CNT and their
inherently strong affinity to themselves. Two major
issues in processing CNT/thermoplastic composites
for enhanced mechanical properties are achieving
uniform dispersion and producing alignment of the
nanotubes in the polymer matrix. This book presents
an approach that used a combination of surfactant-
aided mixing, extrusion, and various drawing
processing techniques to successfully obtain
significant improvement of nanotube dispersion and
alignment in a semi-crystalline polymer matrix. The
processing techniques used were relatively simple
without the requirement of sophisticated equipment,
making low-cost and easy commercial processing a
possibility. This book also provided a practical
method for dispersion and alignment measurement that
correlated with the material strength.

Autorentext

Dr. Kern Peng, PhD. in Mechanical Engineering at Santa Clara University, specialized in nano-materials. Doctorate of Business Administration at Golden Gate University, specialized in operations management. Engineering manager at Intel Corporation. Adjunct professor at Santa Clara University and San Jose State University.

Klappentext

Carbon nanotube (CNT)/thermoplastic composites have many potential applications. However, processing CNT/thermoplastic composites has been extremely challenging due to the nano scale of CNT and their inherently strong affinity to themselves. Two major issues in processing CNT/thermoplastic composites for enhanced mechanical properties are achieving uniform dispersion and producing alignment of the nanotubes in the polymer matrix. This book presents an approach that used a combination of surfactant-aided mixing, extrusion, and various drawing processing techniques to successfully obtain significant improvement of nanotube dispersion and alignment in a semi-crystalline polymer matrix. The processing techniques used were relatively simple without the requirement of sophisticated equipment, making low-cost and easy commercial processing a possibility. This book also provided a practical method for dispersion and alignment measurement that correlated with the material strength.