Polyethylene crystallization nucleated by carbon nanotubes under shear

Marilyn L Minus; Han Gi Chae; Satish Kumar

doi:10.1021/am2013757

Polyethylene crystallization nucleated by carbon nanotubes under shear

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2012 Jan;4(1):326-30. doi: 10.1021/am2013757. Epub 2011 Dec 28.

Authors

Marilyn L Minus¹, Han Gi Chae, Satish Kumar

Affiliation

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 801 Ferst Drive NW, MRDC-1, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0295, USA. m.minus@neu.edu

PMID: 22148325
DOI: 10.1021/am2013757

Abstract

Polyethylene crystallization under shear has been studied in the presence of single-wall, few-wall, and multiwall carbon nanotubes (SWNT, FWNT, and MWNT). Polyethylene crystal d-spacings for (110) and (200) planes in polyethylene/carbon nanotubes (CNT) are smaller than in the control polyethylene without CNT and the polymer chain is oriented along the CNT axis. The single-wall carbon nanotube templated polyethylene crystals do not redissolve in boiling xylenes; instead, the chain morphology transforms to an amorphous conformation but remains oriented along the nanotube axis. SWNT crystal peaks were also observed in polyethylene/SWNT fibers.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.