Chemical bonding of multiwalled carbon nanotubes to polydimethylsiloxanes and modification of the photoinitiator system for microstereolithography processing

Oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) were functionalized with polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) by opening epoxide groups of PDMS under ultrasonic irradiation and the acidic condition provided by ion-exchange resin. The final product is a uniform solution and allowed the wet-casting of thin film. Photoinitiator and sensitizer were added for UV curing using the Penn state microstereolithography (MSL) system which has a wavelength close to 364 nm.