多壁碳纳米管-高聚物纳米复合材料的抗蠕变性能

通过双螺杆挤出机和模压成型设备制备了两种不同长径比的多壁碳纳米管（MWNT）增强的聚丙烯（PP）纳米复合材料。实验表明，通过添加1％体积含量的MWNT，聚丙烯的抗蠕变性能得到很大提高，即长时间加栽后，基体的蠕变变形量和蠕变率均显著降低。同时，在特定载荷下，纳米复合材料的蠕变寿命比纯基体提高了10倍。几种栽荷传递机理导致了材料抗蠕变性能的增强：（1）碳纳米管和基体之间较好的界面性能，（2）碳纳米管限制了基体内无定型分子链的活动性，以及（3）碳纳米管的较高的长径比。差分热扫描（DSC）的结果显示了材料蠕变前后结晶的变化和栽荷传递机理分析是一致的。这些实验结果显示，在不增加成本的基础上可以大大提高抗蠕变的聚合物纳米复合材料的工程应用。

Creep Resistance of MWNT-Polymer Nanocomposites

Polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites filled with shorter-and longer-aspect-ratio multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were compounded using a twin-screw extruder and an injection moulding machine. It is shown that with only 1 vol.% of MWNTs, creep resistance of PP can be significantly improved with reduced creep deformation and creep rate at a long-term loading period. Additionally, the creep lifetime of the nanocomposites has been considerably extended by 1000% compared to that of neat PP. Three possible mechanisms of load transfer were considered that could contribute to the observed enhancement of creep resistance, which are (1) fairly good interfacial strength between MWNTs and polymer matrix, (2) increasing immobility of amorphous regions due to nanotubes acting as restriction sites, and (3) high aspect ratio of MWNTs. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results showing crystallinity changes in the specimens before and after creep deformation present evidence to confirm these mechanisms. Our results should lead to improved grades of creep resistant polymer nanocomposites for engineering applications.