Growth of ordered multi-walled carbon nanotubes over mesoporous 3D cubic Zn/Fe-KIT-6 molecular sieves and its use in the fabrication of epoxy nanocomposites

Mesoporous three dimensional (3D) cubic Fe-KIT-6 molecular sieves with various Si/Fe ratios (Si/Fe: 50, 75 and 100) were synthesized hydrothermally and different weight percentage (wt.%) of Zn was loaded over them by wet impregnation. The synthesized materials were used as catalytic template for the growth of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using acetylene as a carbon precursor by chemical vapour deposition. The deposited carbon materials were purified and analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy techniques. The observation depicted that the Zn/Fe-KIT-6 template influence the high yield of ordered MWCNTs without major contamination. The purified MWCNTs were functionalized and investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and SEM techniques. The characterised MWCNT/functionalized-MWCNTs (f-MWCNTs) are used as filler material for the fabrication of epoxy composites. On comparison with different wt.% of loading viz., 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 wt.%; 1 wt.% MWCNTs/f-MWCNTs filled epoxy resin showed the highest improvement in tensile strength, flexural strength and hardness as compared to neat and other epoxy systems. The rate of burning is decreased with respect to the wt.% of MWCNTs/f-MWCNTs. The f-MWCNT/epoxy composites were found to possess high thermo-mechanical properties compared to MWCNT/epoxy composites. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.