CARBON NANOTUBE DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS IN THE VOLUME OF THE POLYMER BINDER USING THE SOFTWARE PACKAGE «DG ANALYZER»

doi: 10.25712/ASTU.2072-8921.2021.02.034

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have an interesting set of properties that position them for a wide variety of potential applications in liquid suspensions, polymer solutions, polymer melts, and polymer composites. Their unusual properties include high moduli of elasticity, high aspect ratios, excellent thermal and electrical conductivities, and magnetic properties. Important challenges to developing applications for these unique materials include uniform and reproducible dispersion and orientation of these solids in liquid and melt phases. Production processes for carbon nanotubes often produce mixtures of solid morphologies that are mechanically entangled or that self-associate into aggregates. Entangled or aggregated nanoparticles often need to be dispersed into fluid suspensions in order to develop materials that have unique mechanical characteristics.

This paper reviews the effects of milling, ultrasonication, on the distribution of carbon nanotubes and their interactions in the liquid phase. An express method for estimating the degree of dispersibility and orientation of CNTs in a viscous medium using the image analysis software "DG Analyzer” proposed.