(383h) High Electrical Conductive Ethylene 1-Octene Copolymers Reinforced with Low Loading Carbon Nanotubes

In the paper, the high performance ethylene 1-octene copolymer (EOC) nanocomposites have been successfully fabricated by innovatively coating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the surface of gelated/swollen EOCs pellets. The effects of nanofiller loading levels and the processed temperature on the morphology, thermal stability, crystal structure, melt rheological behaviors, optical properties, electrical conductivity and dielectric properties were systematically studied. The increased thermal stability of EOC nanocomposites is observed with increasing the CNT loadings by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Moreover, compared with pure EOC, a stronger shear-thinning process was observed in the nanocomposites and was attributed to the orientation of nanofillers. The electrical conductivity (σ) was observed to depend on the processing temperature and loading of CNTs [1]. Meanwhile, the CNTs formed network structure more easily in the polymer matrix resulting in a higher σ at lower processing temperature. The calculated band gap of the nanocomposites was observed to depend on the processing temperature and its variation was attributed to the strain on the CNTs in nanocomposites. Finally, the negative real permittivity was observed in the nanocomposites and the variation of real permittivity was attributed to the plasma frequency variation of CNTs in nanocomposites [2].

[1] J. Zhu, H. Gu, Z. Luo, N. Haldolaarachchige, D. P. Young, S. Wei and Z. Guo; Carbon Nanostructures Derived Polyaniline Metacomposites: Electrical, Dielectric and Giant Magnetoresistive Properties; Langmuir, 28(27), 10246–10255 (2012)

[2] H. Gu, J. Guo, Q. He, Y. Jiang, Y. Huang,* N. Haldolaarachchige, Z. Luo, D. P. Young, S. Wei and Z. Guo; Magnetoresistive Polyaniline/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Nanocomposites with Negative Permittivity; Nanoscale, 6, 181-189 (2014)