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Authors Staudinger, U. ; Krause, B. ; Steinbach, C. ; Pötschke, P. ; Voit, B.
Title Dispersability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in polycarbonate-chloroform solutions
Date 14.10.2014
Number 42585
Abstract The dispersion of commercial multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs, NanocylTM NC7000) in chloroform and in polycarbonate (PC)-chloroform solutions was investigated by variation of the polymer concentration, MWCNT amount and sonication time and compared with PC/MWCNT composites, which were processed by melt mixing, subsequently dissolved in chloroform and dispersed via sonication under the same conditions. The sedimentation behaviour was characterised under centrifugal forces using a LUMiSizer® separation analyser. The space and time resolved extinction profiles as a measure of the stability of the dispersion and the particle size distribution were evaluated. Sonication up to 5 min gradually increases the amount of dispersed particles in the solutions. A significant improvement of the MWCNT dispersion in chloroform was achieved by the addition of PC indicating the mechanism of polymer chain wrapping around the MWCNTs. However, in dispersions of melt mixed PC/MWCNT composites the dispersion of MWCNTs is significantly enhanced already at a low sonication time of only 0.5 min due to very efficient polymer wrapping during the melt mixing process. However, the best dispersion quality does not lead to the highest electrical conductivity of thin composite films made of these PC/MWCNT dispersions.
Publisher Polymer
Wikidata
Citation Polymer 55 (2014) 6335-6344
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2014.10.012
Tags carbon nanotubes dispersion polymer solutions

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