Dispersion of commercial multi-walled and single-walled carbon nanotubes in high density polyethylene

In this work, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) (unfunctionalized and functionalized) and short single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNTs) were used to prepare nanocomposites based on high density polyethylenes (HDPEs) and compatibilized with maleic anhydride grafted high density polyethylene (HDPE-g-MA). The carbon nanotubes dispersion was evaluated at the micrometric level by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and at the nanometric level by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thermal properties were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The mechanical properties were estimated by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The effect of the following parameters on the dispersion and on the nanocomposites macroscopic properties were studied: i) carbon nanotubes characteristics (type, aspect ratio, functionalization); ii) molecular weight of the matrix.