Enhanced mechanical properties of single walled carbon nanotube- borosilicate glass composite due to cushioning effect and localized plastic flow

Abstract

A borosilicate glass composite has been fabricated incorporating Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNT) in the glass matrix by melt-quench technique. Hardness and the fracture toughness of the composite, were found to increase moderately with respect to the base glass. Interestingly one can observe accumulation of SWCNT bundles around the crack zone though no such accumulation was observed in the crack free indentation zone. The enhanced hardness of the composite was discussed by correlating the cushioning as well as toughening behavior of the agglomerated SWCNT bundles. On the other hand enhanced plastic flow was proposed to be the prime reason for the accumulation of SWCNT bundles around the crack, which increases the toughness of the composite by reducing the crack length. Moreover to ascertain the enhanced plasticity of the composite than that of the glass we calculated the recovery resistance of glass and the composite where recovery resistance of composite was found to be higher than that of the glass. © Copyright 2011 Author(s).