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Tuneable Dielectric Properties Derived from Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes in PVDF-Based Nanocomposites
2018, Pawar, Shital Patangrao, Arjmand, Mohammad, Pötschke, Petra, Krause, Beate, Fischer, Dieter, Bose, Suryasarathi, Sundararaj, Uttandaraman
Nitrogen-doped multiwall carbon nanotubes (N-MWNTs) with different structures were synthesized by employing chemical vapor deposition and changing the argon/ethane/nitrogen gas precursor ratio and synthesis time, and broadband dielectric properties of their poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-based nanocomposites were investigated. The structure, morphology, and electrical conductivity of synthesized N-MWNTs were assessed via Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and powder conductivity techniques. The melt compounded PVDF nanocomposites manifested significantly high real part of the permittivity (ϵ′) along with low dissipation factor (tan δϵ) in 0.1 kHz to 1 MHz frequency range, suggesting use as efficient charge-storage materials. Longer synthesis time resulted in enhanced carbon purity as well as higher thermal stability, determined via TGA analysis. The inherent electrical conductivity of N-MWNTs scaled with the carbon purity. The charge-storage ability of the developed PVDF nanocomposites was commensurate with the amount of the nitrogen heteroatom (i.e., self-polarization), carbon purity, and inherent electrical conductivity of N-MWNTs and increased with better dispersion of N-MWNTs in PVDF.
Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotube/Polypropylene Composites with Negative Seebeck Coefficient
2020, Krause, Beate, Konidakis, Ioannis, Arjmand, Mohammad, Sundararaj, Uttandaraman, Fuge, Robert, Liebscher, Marco, Hampel, Silke, Klaus, Maxim, Serpetzoglou, Efthymis, Stratakis, Emmanuel, Pötschke, Petra
This study describes the application of multi-walled carbon nanotubes that were nitrogen-doped during their synthesis (N-MWCNTs) in melt-mixed polypropylene (PP) composites. Different types of N-MWCNTs, synthesized using different methods, were used and compared. Four of the five MWCNT grades showed negative Seebeck coefficients (S), indicating n-type charge carrier behavior. All prepared composites (with a concentration between 2 and 7.5 wt% N-MWCNTs) also showed negative S values, which in most cases had a higher negative value than the corresponding nanotubes. The S values achieved were between 1.0 µV/K and −13.8 µV/K for the N-MWCNT buckypapers or powders and between −4.7 µV/K and −22.8 µV/K for the corresponding composites. With a higher content of N-MWCNTs, the increase in electrical conductivity led to increasing values of the power factor (PF) despite the unstable behavior of the Seebeck coefficient. The highest power factor was achieved with 4 wt% N-MWCNT, where a suitable combination of high electrical conductivity and acceptable Seebeck coefficient led to a PF value of 6.1 × 10−3 µW/(m·K2). First experiments have shown that transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) is a useful tool to study the carrier transfer process in CNTs in composites and to correlate it with the Seebeck coefficient.