Polystyrene adsorbed multi-walled carbon nanotubes incorporated polymethylmethacrylate composites with modified percolation phenomena

Extensive work has been done on the modification of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to improve their characteristics. Here, polystyrene (PS) was adsorbed on the surface of MWCNTs by dispersion process, using toluene as medium. PS modified MWCNTs (PS-MWCNTs) have been dispersed in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) matrix to prepare composite, PS-MWCNTs/PMMA. It is expected that PS adsorbed at the surface of the MWCNTs will help in improving the interaction between MWCNTs and PMMA which results uniform and homogeneous dispersion of the former in later. Thus, synthesized composites were characterized by UV-Vis and FTIR spectroscopy to monitor the functionality of developed product. Electrical parameters including conductivity and dielectric properties were measured with the help of LCR meter. Electrical characters of the composites were explored by investigating the effect of contents of PS-MWCNTs on conductivity and dielectric properties. Percolation behaviour was examined and calculated value of percolation threshold was 0.1wt%.