The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT) films serve as macroscopic structures that retain excellent properties of individual CNTs, offering high potential for application as multifunctional composites. Although impregnating polymer into CNT films is essential for the fabrication of high-performance lightweight structural materials, the densely networked structure of CNT films hinders resin impregnation, posing a major challenge in composite fabrication. To overcome the limitation, an ionic liquid and an electrical system were introduced to enlarge internal space of the CNT film during a process and enhance its impregnation ability. In this process, the ionic liquid simultaneously served as electrolyte, curing agent of epoxy resin, and swelling agent, which enables uniform impregnation into CNT films under optimized electrical field condition. The effects of ionic liquid and electrical system on CNT film were investigated by characterizing mechanical properties and morphology of the resulting composites.