Mechanical model to evaluate the effect of the dispersion in nanocomposites

A key parameter in taking advantage of the exceptional mechanical and physical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNT) is getting a homogeneous dispersion of the nanofiller in the matrix. Micromechanical models are used to predict the properties of composites, but in most cases the calculated results are not comparable with those from experimentation. In the ease of epoxy matrices, poorly dispersed CNT are obtained, as has been observed by scanning electron microscopy. The influence of the dispersion in nanocomposite stiffness is estimated developing a new micromechanical model. Several micromechanical models and experimental results are compared with this new model, showing that the latter has better agreement with mechanical tests. In addition, this mathematical formulation could be used with other reinforcements that are poorly dispersed, not only with CNT. (c) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.