Synthesis and Evaluation of Mechanical Properties for CNT Reinforced Polymer Composites

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes possess a set of unique physical and chemical properties which has enabled their vast application in various fields including medical, automobile, aerospace, electronics, sports and many more. As mechanical reinforcements for structural applications CNTs are unique due to their nano-dimensions and size, as well as their incredible strength, which fulfil the base requirement of orthopedic and dentistry application. The proposed Carbon nanotube based Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanocomposite may be found suitable as a scaffold material in the domain of bone tissue engineering and for fabricating denture bases in dentistry applications. Several studies have been conducted on synthesis of novel materials but they reported issues of aggloromation, dispersion and orientation in their studies. It has always been challenging for engineers and scientist to work with the set of parameters and different processing conditions for synthesizing polymer nanocomposites. Many researchers have developed tools and techniques for processing of desired materials and have obtained enhancement in properties for various applications. The aim of this study is to develop a synthesis procedure for carbon nanotube reinforced polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) to eliminate the issues like aggloromation and non homogeneous mixing noticed during the review of literature. Synthesis has been done utilizing pristine, hydroxyl and carboxyl functionalised multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) as filler material in Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer matrix and their mechanical properties have been evaluated.The mixing has been done using a novel 3d mixing process.It s tumbling motion eliminates the issues of aggloromation and breakage of MWCNTS occurs with conventional mixing newlineprocesses. It has been reported that Mixing of MWCNT into the polymer at very small propositions can lead to enriching the mechanical properties of the polymer newlinenanocomposites.