The influence of functionalization time of carbon nanotube on the mechanical properties of the epoxy composites

This paper investigates the structure, length, and percentage of functional groups of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) depending on the time taken for functionalization in HNO 3 and H 2 SO 4 mixture. The carbon nanotube content and influence of functionalization time on mechanical properties of polymer composite materials based on epoxy matrix are studied. The extreme dependencies of mechanical properties of carbon nanotube functionalization time of polymer composites were established. The rise in tensile strength of obtained composites reaches 102% and elastic modulus reaches 227% as compared to that of unfilled polymer. The composites exhibited best mechanical properties by including carbon nanotube with 0.5 h functionalization time.