Properties of Nanocomposites Based on Resin and Carbon Nanotubes

A systematic study of the electrical properties of polymeric composite materials based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carried out at INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati is reviewed. The purpose was to make a light, thin and mechanically strong composite material to cover electric circuits against external electromagnetic interference. The epoxy resin that was used as a polymeric matrix is a commercial Shell product Epon 828. Two types of curing agent were used along with the resin, namely the A1 curing agent and PAP8 agent. The composite is obtained using the A1 curing agent, selected for the stability of the corresponding composite over a wide range of pressure values, in comparison with a different curing agent (namely PAP8). Benchmarking the resistivity properties of composites based on CNTs with those containing micron-sized graphite particles as a constituent, shows the advantages of using carbon nanotubes. The change in the resistivity values for carbon nanotubes based composites turns out to be significant, even for small changes in the added carbon nanotubes percentage. These results might be important for determining the most suitable 'recipe' for the realization of composite materials for high-fidelity circuits in aerospace applications, or even in devices exposed to disturbances predominantly electromagnetic in their nature. It is planned also to present in future reports a study of carbon nanotubes based composites with PAP8. Also, we plan to show the composite behavior in controlled humidity environments and for different temperatures. Finally preliminary results on the mechanical characterization of the nanocomposites will be presented elsewhere