Synthesis and electrical characterization of polyaniline / multiwalled carbon nanotubes / epoxy resin composite

Abstract

Polyaniline (PANI) is a conductive polymer may be used in electronics, sensors and anti-corrosion coating fabrication. However, its brittleness and poor mechanical properties limits such application. In order to improve the mechanical properties of PANI, one may implement it in polymeric composites such as epoxy resin (ER) I. n this study, first PANI / carbon nanotubes (CNT) composite was fabricated by a simple electrochemical method. The resultant composite was milled and dispersed in ER and cured by its hardener to fabricate PANI / CNT / ER composite. Also CNT modified with amine and carboxylic functional groups were used to achieve a better dispersion into the ER matrix and the results were compared with those of pristine CNT. It was found that the electrical conductivity of the samples produced with modified CNT is more than the samples produced using pristine ones. Also amine functional groups were more effective than carboxyl functional groups in enhancing the composite conductivity. This may be related to better dispersion of amine modified CNT in the composite.