Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Relationship Between Quantitative Dispersion and Physical Properties of PMMA/SWNT Nanocomposites

Published

Author(s)

Takashi Kashiwagi, Jeffrey Fagan, Keith Yamamoto, A N. Heckert, Stefan D. Leigh, Jan Obrzut, F Du, Sheng Lin-Gibson, Minfang Mu, K Winey, R Haggenmueller, Jack F. Douglas

Abstract

Six PMMA/SWNT(0.5 wt%) nanocomposite samples intended to have different dispersion levels were prepared by the coagulation method using six different concentrations of SWNTs in DMF from 0.05 mg/ml to 1.2 mg/ml. The morphology of the samples was determined by two different methods, one an absorbance measurement by UV-Vis spectroscopy and the other a statistical analysis of images taken by confocal microscopy. Quantitative dispersion levels were obtained through the image analysis to obtain a relative dispersion index and also through ?2 values representing the uniformity of the dispersion of SWNTs in the samples. The relationships between the quantified dispersion levels and physical properties show about two orders of magnitude variation in storage modulus at low frequencies, at least seven orders of magnitude variation in electric conductivity, and about 70 % reduction in peak mass loss rate at the highest dispersion level. The physical properties correlate better with absorbance than with relative distribution index or ?2 value.
Citation
Macromolecules

Citation

Kashiwagi, T. , Fagan, J. , Yamamoto, K. , Heckert, A. , Leigh, S. , Obrzut, J. , Du, F. , Lin-Gibson, S. , Mu, M. , Winey, K. , Haggenmueller, R. and Douglas, J. (2017), Relationship Between Quantitative Dispersion and Physical Properties of PMMA/SWNT Nanocomposites, Macromolecules (Accessed October 3, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created February 19, 2017