Electromagnetic and mechanical properties of nanocomposites polyacrylonitrile/carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The films of carbon-polymer nanocomposite PAN/SWCNT with different filler concentrations, varying from 0.5 to 30 wt.%, are synthesized. It found that the use of fillers in the polymer composite on the basis of PAN, in the form of SWNTs, significantly affects the mechanical properties of the polymer, in particular, the tensile strength increases. The study of electrophysical properties showed that when SWNT fillers are introduced from 0.5 to 30 wt.%, the electrical conductivity increases by 2 orders of magnitude due to the increase in the percolation degree and by 7 orders of magnitude in comparison with pure PAN. The dielectric constant and reflectance (R), transmission (T), absorption (A) in the terahertz range are measured. It found that the reflection coefficient is nonlinearly dependent on the concentration of carbon nanotubes, and the minimum reflection coefficient is 0.55 a.u. is observed at a concentration of 0.5 wt.%, while materials with a SWNT concentration of more than 5 wt.% show almost identical reflection coefficient at a sufficiently low transmission factor.