Cellulose Nanofiber/Carbon Nanotube Conductive Nano-Network as a Reinforcement Template for Polydimethylsiloxane Nanocomposite

• Published in: Polymers 2018-09, Vol.10 (9), p.1000
• Main Authors: Chen, Chuchu, Bu, Xiangting, Feng, Qian, Li, Dagang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym10091000

Both cellulose nanofiber (CNF) and carbon nanotube (CNT) are nanoscale fibers that have shown reinforcing effects in polymer composites. It's worth noting that CNF and CNT could form a three-dimensional nano-network via mixing and vacuum filtration, which exhibit excellent mechanical strength and electrical conductivity. In this study, the developed CNF/CNT film was applied as a nano-network template and immersed into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) solutions. By controlling the immersed polydimethylsiloxane pre-polymer concentration, the PDMS/CNF/CNT nanocomposite with various PDMS contents were fabricated after a curing process. Morphological images showed that the CNF/CNT nano-network was well-preserved inside the PDMS, which resulted in significantly improved mechanical strength. While increasing the PDMS content (~71.3 wt %) gave rise to decreased tensile strength, the PDMS-30/CNF/CNT showed a fracture strain of 7.5%, which was around seven fold higher than the rigid CNF/CNT and still kept a desirable strength-Young's modulus and conductivity of 18.3 MPa, 805 MPa, and 0.8 S/cm, respectively. Therefore, with the enhanced mechanical properties and the electrical conductivity, the prepared PDMS/CNF/CNT composite films may offer promising and broad prospects in the field of flexible devices.