Fabrication of high mechanical performance UHMWPE nanocomposites with high‐loading multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Using conventional mixing techniques, the mechanical properties of prepared carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer composites are not impressive enough, because of their aggregation problem at a high loading of CNTs. In this article, high mechanical performance ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) nanocomposites with high loading of multiwalled CNTs were successfully fabricated by a new manufacturing technique. Specifically, the tensile strength and storage modulus at 25 C of UHMWPE nanocomposites with 32 wt % of nanotubes prepared by the novel technique reaches 107.6 MPa and 6.0 GPa, respectively, about 4.7 times and 5.0 times of that of pure UHMWPE resin, which are also very high experimental results compared with polyethylene nanocomposite prepared by traditional hot-compression techniques. These attractive results suggest that the high-loading CNTs without sacrificing their dispersion and the impregnation quality of polymer-impregnated buckypapers are essential for fabricating CNTs/polymer composites with superior mechanical properties.Recently, macroscopic structures in the form of fiber or membranes provide a practical venue to overcome the dispersion problem of CNTs at high loading. 12,13 Wang et al. developed a new technique to manufacture high performance nanocomposites with high loading of CNTs: the CNTs are first assembled to nonwoven CNTs membranes, which are also named as buckypapers, consisting on entangled CNTs networks having a highly porous mesh structure, and then be permeated by epoxy to attain controllable reinforcement dispersion and high loading levels. 14 To date, many reports successfully employ buckypapers as reinforcements in thermoplastic resin, such as polycarbonate, poly(ether ether ketone), and polyamide by using simple manufacturing Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.

Endowing Acceptable Mechanical Properties of Segregated Conductive Polymer Composites with Enhanced Filler-Matrix Interfacial Interactions by Incorporating High Specific Surface Area Nanosized Carbon Black

“…The detailed information of these DSC curves is listed in Table S2. In Table S2, the crystallinity (χ c ) of UHMWPE gradually decreases with an increase of CCB content, and the reason for the decrease is mainly ascribed to the extremely high viscosity of the UHMWPE matrix; rigid CCB particles are segregated and evenly dispersed in UHMWPE boundary regions due to the volume exclusion effect of the matrix, limiting the alignment of UHMWPE chains and decreasing the melting points (T m ) of the obtained composites, which is consistent with the reported results of the crystallization properties of high specific surface area MWCNT/UHMWPE [36], large aspect ratio graphene nanoplatelets/UHMWPE [39] and multi-scale mesoporous structural bamboo charcoal/UHMWPE composites [40]. This result further confirms that the crystal structure of UHMWPE is influenced by the h-CCB content-that is, physically interlocking interactions of high polar CCB particles impede the movement of UHMWPE molecular chains, which is also consistent with Raman mapping results.…”

“…However, among these methods in enhancing the filler-matrix, interfacial interactions is relatively complicated for the practical production process. Thus, for CPCs with strong interface adhesion and small defects, whether they can simply employ low-cost and high-electrically conductive nanostructured carbon fillers for developing EMI shielding materials has become a very perspective research hotspot [ 35 , 36 ].…”

Effects of reinforcements and gamma‐irradiation on wear performance of ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene as acetabular cup liner in hip‐joint arthroplasty: A review

“…Further, works on the assessment of tribological properties of UHMWPE‐CNT nanocomposites agree with the improved wear resistance by CNT 32,75,76 . But, the wear resistance of CNT incorporated UHMWPE is very sensitive to the level of content 77 . The successful fabrication of UHMWPE (U)‐CNT‐carbon nanoclay (C15A) was confirmed from the XRD with no changes in crystal structure of the base material (U) (Figure 2(a)).…”

Crystallization and Melting Behavior of UHMWPE Composites Filled by Different Carbon Materials

“…In order to improve the properties of UHMWPE, UHMWPE composites filled by carbon fibers (CF) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], carbon nanotube (CNT) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32], and graphene oxide (GO) [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] were reported. Despite the excellent performance of these nanocomposites, the high cost of these fillers restricted the widely use of the UHMWPE composites.…”