Synthesis and characterization of CNTs doped polymeric composites: comparative studies on exploring impact of CNT concentration on morphological, structural, thermokinetic and mechanical attributes

Abstract In the present work, an attempt was made to adopt solvent casting approach to synthesize and compare PEO/CNT and PMMA/CNT composites with varying concentration of CNTs while using SDS as a surfactant to enhance dispersion and prevent agglomeration. Different characterization techniques namely Thermal Gravimetric Analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Diffraction Analysis and Universal Testing Machine were betrothed to characterize and evaluate the effect of CNT loading on PEO/CNT with PMMA/CNT composites. TGA revealed that thermal sturdiness of PEO/CNT’s lifts sharply by CNT’s whereas PMMA/CNT’s thermal stability increases gradually. SEM images exposed that functionalized multiwall CNT in PEO accelerates the crystal growth by showing fungus like morphology as witnessed in low magnification images. The low magnification SEM images for PMMA/CNT shows bubble like morphology. The sharp peaks and semi crystalline nature of PEO/CNT and Humps and increase in crystallinity with CNT for PMMA/CNT composites were confirmed by XRD. UTM investigation confirmed that plasticity amplifies with increasing CNT loading in fabricated hybrid. Similarly UTM investigation explored that incorporation of CNT in both polymers augments mechanical performance. Evaluation of decomposition thermal energy confirmed that CNT loading boosts up thermal activation energy more for PMMA in contrary to PEO. Based on our findings it is safe to conclude that physical attributes of polymeric system is highly sensitive to the CNT loadings and must be incorporated with care as linear increasing CNT effects various parameters (Crystallinity, thermal strength and mechanical performance) unsymmetrically.