Tunable Permittivity of Polymer Composites through Incremental Blending of Raw and Functionalized Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

A method is reported for controlling the permittivity of single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) polymer composites based on variations in the amount of raw and functionalized SWNTs (f-SWNTs) that are incorporated. The total weight percent of SWNTs included in the composites remains constant at 0.5%. Measurements were taken at a frequency range of 1−1000 MHz. The magnitude of the real permittivity varied between 20 and 3.3, decreasing as higher fractions of f-SWNTs are added. This type of control over the permittivity is important for applications including passive RF antenna structures, electromagnetic interference mitigation, and other radio frequency applications.