International Journal of Engineering and Management Research (IJEMR)
  • Year: 2014
  • Volume: 4
  • Issue: 3

Carbon Nanomaterials Reinforced Di-Glycidyl Ether of Bisphenol A (DGEBA) Composites for Improved Mechanical and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Properties

  • Author:
  • Preetam Bhardwaj1, Kamalkant Singh2
  • Total Page Count: 16
  • Page Number: 138 to 153

1Research Scholar, Department of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Deenbandhu Chhoturam University of Science & Technology, Murthal, India

2Research Scholar, Department of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Deenbandhu Chhoturam University of Science & Technology, Murthal, India

Online published on 21 November, 2017.

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes have attracted much interest due to their unusual one dimensional structure and novel properties. With potential applications ranging from molecular electronics and field-emission displays to nanocomposites, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offer tremendous opportunity in the development of multi-functional material systems. Exceedingly high mechanical properties of the carbon nanotubes have attracted attention for the development of super strong light weight structures.

The use of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and carbon nanofibres (CNF) as reinforcing materials for nanocomposites with epoxy resin have been studied. MWCNT were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique using ferrocene-toluene mixture. The polymer composites were fabricated by casting method. The effect of nanotubes content on the electrical, mechanical and EMI Shielding properties of the nanocomposites was investigated. The mechanical properties (tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus) of the composites were found to be comparable or better than the pure polymer. Also the functionalized MWCNT have found to improve the mechanical properties better then the non functionalized MWCNT. An improvement in electrical conductivity from insulating to conducting with increasing MWCNT content was observed.

Epoxy nanocomposites of different content of carbon nanofibers (CNF) upto 1 wt% were also fabricated. The composites were studied in terms of mechanical, electrical and EMI shielding properties. Flexural modulus and Flexural strength were found to increase significantly when concentration of CNF increase in the nanocomposite. Electrical conductivity improved by 3–6 orders after infusing carbon nanofibers in insulating epoxy. Samples with high concentration of CNF acquired higher conductivity that was attributed to network formation by aggregates of nanofibers along the fiber alignment direction as revealed by electron microscopic studies. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness value of about 12 dB was obtained in the frequency range 12–18 GHz (KUband), for a 0.7% CNF loading.