Preparation and Characterization of Polymer/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposites

This paper describes the preparation, characterization and properties of nanostructured composite materials based on poly(butylene adipate-co-polycaprolactam) (PBA-co-PCL)/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polycaprolactone (PCL)/MWCNTs. The polymer/MWCNTs nanocomposites were prepared by mixing the polymers with various amounts of MWCNTs using both solution and melt blending processes. The dispersion of MWCNTs into the polymer matrix was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the thermal stability of the nanocomposites was studied by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the crystallization and melting behaviour of the polymer matrices containing the MWCNTs.