The effect of polymer spatial configuration on the microwave absorbing properties of non-covalent modified MWNTs

The polar polymer of linear and star polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was used to modify the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Raman and TGA were used to characterize structure of the functionalized MWNTs. The effect of polymer spatial configuration on the MWNTs dispersion, morphology and interfacial interaction was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The aim of the work is to investigate the effect of polymer spatial configuration on the microwave absorbing properties. The results showed that the maximum reflection loss of linear PMMA/MWNTs hybrids was 37 dB in the frequency of 8.8 GHz, and the bandwidth below 10 dB was more than 2.1 GHz. While the maximum reflection loss of the S-PMMA/NIWNTs hybrids reached 50 dB in the frequency of 8.4 GHz, and the bandwidth below 10 dB was 2.3 GHz. The results indicated that the microwave absorbing properties of star PMMA polymers modified MWNTs were superior to that of linear PMMA polymers. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.