Phenolic resin-MWNT nanocomposites prepared through an in situ polymerization method

Abstract

A simple but effective in situ polymerization method has been developed to prepare phenolic resin-based nanocomposites with pristine or carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) as fillers. As revealed by scanning electron microscopy, the nanotubes are well-dispersed in and strongly adhered to the phenolic resin. The resultant nanocomposites have thus obtained the improved thermostabilities. As compared to pristine MWNT-filled nanocomposite, the carboxylated MWNT-filled one has shown more improved thermostability, resulting from the higher dispersion quality of functionalized nanotubes. The related mechanisms have been analyzed qualitatively. To achieve the similar effects, however, more mixing energy should be deposited on the melt mixture in the melt-mixing process. These indicate that phenolic resin-MWNT nanocomposites with high performance may be realized by adoption of pertinent preparation method and moderate functionalized nanotubes. © 2008 The Society of Polymer Science, Japan.