Mechanical properties of multiwalled-carbon-nanotubes reinforced poly(methyl methacrylate): Effect of UV-irradiation

The reinforcement of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to polymer plays a critical role in the potential applications of polymer-based composites in sensing, actuating and structural health monitoring technologies. In this work, we study the irradiation effects of ultraviolet (UV) light on the glass transition temperature and mechanical deformation of multiwall-carbon-nanotube reinforced poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA-MWCNT composites) as a function of the weight percentage of MWCNTs in a range of 0–0.7 wt%. Increasing the weight percentage of MWCNTs from 0.3 wt% to 0.7 wt% slightly increases the glass transition temperature of the PMMA-MWCNT composites. The glass transition temperature, elastic modulus and tensile strength of the UV-irradiated pure PMMA are less than the corresponding ones without the UV irradiation. The glass transition temperatures of the PMMA-MWCNT composites for the weight percentage of MWCNTs ranging from 0.3 wt% to 0.7 wt% are relatively independent of the UV-irradiation for the UV-dose used in this work. We propose a simple equation to calculate the effective modulus of the PMMA-MWCNT composites. Both the toughness and elongation of the PMMA-MWCNT composites without UV-irradiation are larger than the corresponding ones of the same composite with the UV irradiation.