Influence of Surface Treatment of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes on Interfacial Interaction of Nanocomposites

In this work, the effect of aminized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (NH-MWNTs) on the mechanical interfacial properties of epoxy nanocomposites was investigated by means of fracture toughness, critical stress intensity factor ($K_{IC}$), and impact strength testing, and their morphology was examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the incorporation of amine groups onto MWNTs was confirmed by the FT-IR and Raman spectra. The mechanical interfacial properties of the epoxy nanocomposites were remarkably improved with increasing the NH-MWNT content. It was probably attributed to the strong physical interaction between amine groups of NH-MWNTs and epoxide groups of epoxy resins. The SEM micrographs showed that NH-MWNTs were uniformly embed and bonded with epoxy resins, resulted in the prevention of the deformation and crack propagation in the NH-MWNTs/epoxy nanocomposites.