Nitrogen-doped and undoped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were synthesized by selective passing of source and carrier gases (ethane, ammonia, hydrogen, and argon) over an alumina-supported iron catalyst in a quartz tubular reactor at 650 °C. Synthesized CNTs were mixed with polyvinylidene fluoride with an Alberta polymer asymmetric minimixer (APAM) mixer at 240 °C and 235 rpm, and the resulting nanocomposites were compression molded. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques revealed that introducing nitrogen into the crystalline structure of CNTs resulted in higher crystalline defects. Dielectric measurements showed that nitrogen doping significantly increased dielectric permittivity for a known dielectric loss. This was ascribed to the role of the crystalline defects and nitrogen atoms, which acted as polarizing centers, blocked the nomadic charges, polarized them, and prevented them from moving along CNTs. The obtained results introduce nitrogen doping as a regulative tool to control the dielectric properties of CNT/polymer nanocomposites.
Keywords: carbon nanotube synthesis; charge storage; dielectric loss; dielectric permittivity; nitrogen doping; polymer nanocomposites.