4.2 Article Proceedings Paper

Deformation-Induced Crystallization and Associated Morphology Development of Carbon Nanotube-PVDF Nanocomposites

Journal

JOURNAL OF NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 9, Issue 5, Pages 3330-3340

Publisher

AMER SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1166/jnn.2009.VC08

Keywords

Poly(vinylidene fluoride); Nanocomposite; Crystal Phase; Shear-induced Crystallization; Rheology

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is a semicrystalline thermoplastic polymer that is of interest for sensor, actuator and biomedical applications because of its piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties, as well as outstanding mechanical and chemical properties. Although it is known that the shear-induced crystallization behavior of nanocomposites can be significantly affected by the presence of nanoparticles, the effects of the incorporation of carbon nanotubes on the deformation-induced crystallization and associated morphology development of PVDF have not been previously investigated. Here the dynamics of the shear-induced crystallization of carbon nanotubes incorporated in PVDF were investigated using simple shear flow. The shear-induced crystallization behavior was affected by the deformation rate, temperature, and the concentration of the carbon nanotubes. Time-dependence of linear viscoelastic properties indicated that the presence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) in PVDF greatly altered the shear-induced crystallization kinetics of PVDF, while no significant changes in crystallization behavior were observed for pure PVDF samples sheared under similar conditions. Upon increase of the concentration of the MWNTs the crystal size of PVDF decreased while its rate of crystallization increased in conjunction with an increase of the 0 phase crystallization. Overall, these findings suggest that the shear-induced crystallization of PVDF nanocomposites (and in general flow-induced crystallization effects associated with the thermo-mechanical history experienced by the nanocomposite during processing) should be integral parts of attempts to generate a comprehensive understanding of the development of the microstructural distributions and the coupled ultimate properties of polymer nanocomposites.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.2
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available