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    A successful approach to disperse MWCNTs in polyethylene by melt mixing using polyethylene glycol as additive
    (Oxford : Elsevier Science, 2012) Müller, Michael Thomas; Krause, Beate; Pötschke, Petra
    An additive-assisted one-step melt mixing approach was developed to produce nanocomposites based on linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) with multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT). The polymer granules, nanotube powder (2 wt% Nanocyl™ NC7000) and 1-10 wt% of the non-ionic additives poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) or poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) with molar masses between 100 g/mol and 100,000 g/mol were simply fed together in the hopper of a small-scale DSM Xplore 15 twin-screw microcompounder. The produced MWCNT/LLDPE composites showed excellent MWCNT dispersion and highly improved electrical properties as compared to samples without the additive, whereas the effects depend on the amount and molar mass of the additive. When 7 wt% PEG (2000 g/mol) were used, a reduction of the electrical percolation threshold from 2.5 wt% to 1.5 wt% was achieved. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Dispersability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in polycarbonate-chloroform solutions
    (Oxford : Elsevier Science, 2014) Staudinger, Ulrike; Krause, Beate; Steinbach, Christine; Pötschke, Petra; Voit, Brigitte
    The dispersion of commercial multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs, Nanocyl™ NC7000) in chloroform and in polycarbonate (PC)-chloroform solutions was investigated by variation of the polymer concentration, MWCNT amount and sonication time and compared with PC/MWCNT composites, which were processed by melt mixing, subsequently dissolved in chloroform and dispersed via sonication under the same conditions. The sedimentation behaviour was characterised under centrifugal forces using a LUMiSizer® separation analyser. The space and time resolved extinction profiles as a measure of the stability of the dispersion and the particle size distribution were evaluated. Sonication up to 5 min gradually increases the amount of dispersed particles in the solutions. A significant improvement of the MWCNT dispersion in chloroform was achieved by the addition of PC indicating the mechanism of polymer chain wrapping around the MWCNTs. In dispersions of melt mixed PC/MWCNT composites the dispersion of MWCNTs is significantly enhanced already at a low sonication time of only 0.5 min due to very efficient polymer wrapping during the melt mixing process. However, the best dispersion quality does not lead to the highest electrical conductivity of thin composite films made of these PC/MWCNT dispersions.