Properties of carbon nanotubes and calcium carbonate filled polymer composites

Abstract

This project was focused on the fabrication and characterization of CNTs-CaCO3 filled epoxy composites. The polymer composites were prepared with different ratio of filler loading by using a mechanical stirrer with speed 300 rpm for 3 minutes. Then, the polymer composites were characterized with test, using by flexural test, hardness test, density test, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) .The result indicated that the flexural modulus of epoxy/CNTs decreased as the weight percentage of filler content increase. Epoxy/5 CNTs-CaCO3 content of filler showed highest flexural strength and flexural modulus. The morphology study by using SEM showed increase weight of percentage of epoxy/CNTs-CaCO3 hybrid were dispersed homogeneously in the polymer matrix, it showed epoxy/CNTs-CaCO3 hybrid was better than other filler. For the density test, the lowest at epoxy/5CNTs weight percentage of fillers,this is because CNTs were able to reduce the weight of the sample and for TGA result, CNTs is more stable compared from other fillers because the presence of CNTs as filler in composite that will lead to maximum loss temperature.