Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 43: Nanoparticles and Composite Materials I

CPP 43.5: Talk

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 15:15–15:30, ZEU 222

Experimental study of the structure of aligned CNT/PS composites — •Marina Khaneft¹, Bernd Stühn¹, Jörg Engstler², Jörg Schneider², and Tinka Spehr¹ — ¹Institut für Festkörperphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt — ²Eduard Zintl-Institute für Anorganische und Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt

We present experimental studies of the infiltration of polystyrene (PS) into the free interstices of 3D aligned carbon nanotube arrays. The aligned CNT structures were prepared by a template assisted non catalytic CVD approach. Herein porous alumina (PAOX) is used as template material in which CNTs are deposited. After removal of PAOX CNT arrays are achieved. We infiltrated PS of two different molecular weights (21· 10³ and 88· 10³ g/mol) into CNT arrays with 40 and 100 nm tube diameter. For the investigation of the composites we used different experimental techniques like microscopy (TEM, AFM) and scattering (SAXS, SANS). We determined structure of nanotubes (diameter, wall thickness, interactions between tubes) in each step of sample preparation. We are able to see the variation of the scattering during the process of growing CNT in PAOX, removing of the alumina matrix and finally the filling of the system with polystyrene. All these changes were described within a model of cylindrical core-shell particles with two dimensional hexagonal order. Investigation of polymer location in composites shows that filling depends on tube size and molecular weight. Moreover, we applied small angle neutron scattering (SANS) for studying the polymer conformation in composites.