Pressurized Resin Infiltration Technology for Fabricating Buckypaper/Epoxy Composites

Abstract

Buckypaper/polymer composites can take more advantages of the superior properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and possess enhanced properties than traditional CNT/polymer composites,for the aggregation of CNTs is low and the CNT content is high. However,due to the dense structures of Buckypaper,the traditional infiltration technique cannot meet the requirements for fabricating high quality Buckypaper/polymer composites. A pressurized infiltration technique was developed to enhance the infiltration efficiency and quality. The epoxy solution was pressurized infiltrated through the Buckypaper,resulting in a well infused Buckypaper. The micro-structure characterization indicates that the surface and fracture structures of the Buckypaper/polymer composites are even and uniform. What's more,Buckypaper/epoxy composites fabricated by the pressurized infiltration technique possess much higher mechanical properties than that fabricated by the solution soaking technique.

Keywords

• Buckypaper
• polymer composite
• fabrication technique
• micro-structure
• mechanical property