Multifunctional polymer nanocomposites that simultaneously possess high modulus and strength, high thermal stability, novel optical responses, and high electrical and thermal conductivity have been actively researched. Carbon nanotubes are considered an ideal additive for composites because of their superlative physical, electronic and optical properties. While nanotubes have successfully added electrical conductivity, thermal stability, and novel optical responses to polymers, mechanical reinforcements, although substantial, have been well below any theoretical estimations. Here, we integrated preformed hydrogels and aerogels of individually dispersed nanotubes with polymer to increase elastic modulus of composites according to Halpin-Tsai model up to at least 25 vol % of nanotubes. Our solution-based fabrication method allowed us to create bulk composites with tunable form-factors, and with polymers that were incompatible with nanotubes. Further, in this approach, nanotubes were not covalently linked among themselves and to the polymer, so intrinsic optical, electrical, and thermal properties of nanotubes could be exploited. The optically active nanotubes, for example, added a strain-dependent, spatially resolved fluorescence to these composites. Finally, the nanoporous nanotube networks suppressed the polymer glass transition and extended the mechanical integrity of polymer well above its polymer melting point, and both the nanotubes and polymer remained thermally stable above their decomposition temperatures.
Keywords: aerogels; carbon nanotubes; modulus; multifunctional nanocomposites.