• Carbon letters
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2013

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are increasingly attracting scientific and industrial interest because of their outstanding characteristics, such as a high Young's modulus and tensile strength, low density, and excellent electrical and thermal properties. The incorporation of CNTs into polymer matrices greatly improves the electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of the materials. Surface modification of CNTs can improve their processibility and dispersion within the composites. This paper aims to review the surface modification of CNTs, processing technologies, and mechanical and electrical properties of CNT-based epoxy composites.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.2-6
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• 2010

The sizing treatments of PAN-based carbon fiber surfaces were carried out in order to improve the interfacial adhesion in the carbon fibers/nylon6 composite system. The parameter to characterize the wetting performance and surface free energy of the sized fibers were determined by a contact angle method. The mechanical interfacial properties of the composites were investigated using critical stress intensity factor ($K_{IC}$). The cross-section morphologies of sized CFs/nylon6composites were observed by SEM. As the experimental results, it was observed that silane-based sizing treated carbon fibers showed higher surface free energies than other sizing treatments. In particular, the KIC of the sizing-treated carbon fibers reinforced composites showed higher values than those of untreated carbon fibers-reinforced composites. This result indicated that the increase in the surface free energy of the fibers leads to the improvement of the mechanical interfacial properties of carbon fibers/nylon6 composites.

• Composites Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.415-420
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• 2020

The interfacial properties in carbon fiber composites, which control the overall mechanical properties of the composites, are very important. Effective interface enhancement work is conducted on the modification of the carbon fiber surface with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Nonetheless, most surface modifications methods do have their own drawbacks such as high temperatures with a range of 600~1000℃, which should be implemented for CNT growth on carbon fibers that can cause carbon fiber damages affecting deterioration of composites properties. This study includes the use of in-situ interfacial polymerization of polyamide 610/CNT to fabricate the carbon fiber composites. The process is very fast and continuous and can disperse CNTs with random orientation in the interface resulting in enhanced interfacial properties. Scanning electron microscopy was conducted to investigate the CNT dispersion and composites morphology, and the thermal stability of the composites was analyzed via thermogravimetric analysis. In addition, fiber pull-out tests were used to assess interfacial strength between fiber and matrix.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.240-244
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• 1998

The analytical method was developed to calculate efficiency of densifying carbon/carbon (C/C) composites using coal tar pitch as a matrix precursor at each cyle. Three factors were defined in analyzing the densification process: impregnation efficiency, retention efficiency, and overall densification efficiency. The relationships developed were applied to the experimental results for three densification cycles of C/C composites with pitches as an impregnant to evaluate the factors which may depend on the impregnant and on the route of carbonization. The impregnation efficiency increased with the repeated process cycles whereas the retention efficiency decreased irrespective of the impregnant and carbonization route. Carbonization route P+A+G, in which pressure carbonizationl (P) and graphitization (G) were done before after atmospheric pressure carboniztion (A) respectively, using impregnant of high carbon yields was the most effective method in densifying C/C composites.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2008

Carbon nanotubes are considered as the most ideal nano filler in the field of composites with their excellent electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Therefore carbon nanotubes composites are increasingly utilized in conductive materials, structural material with high strength and low weight and multifunctional material. This review article describes recent research trend of carbon nanotubes synthesis, modification, various properties of the carbon nanotubes composites and their application. Furthermore the future development direction for the commercialization of carbon nanotubes composites is proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.24-29
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• 2021

In this study, the electrical and mechanical properties of carbon polymer composites, which have been gradually increasing in use in various fields, were investigated, and environment-friendly carbon nanofiber/waterborne polyurethane composites were prepared. Carbon nanofibers (diameter = approximately 100-300 mm) were synthesized using a relatively simple CVD process, obtaining a carbon material for application in ultrathin planar heating films and EMP shielding films in the future. The carbon nanofiber was dispersed, and mixed with water-dispersible polyurethane using a dispersing aid. According to the carbon nanofiber mass ratio, 20%-60% polyurethane/carbon nanofiber composites were manufactured. At a concentration of approximately 20%, the percolation threshold was determined, and at a concentration of approximately 50%, an electrical conductivity greater than 0.1 S/cm was determined. Moreover, a sample having a concentration of up to 60% was evaluated to further understand the mechanical properties. It was observed that as the concentration of the carbon nanofibers increased, the elongation decreased.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.119-124
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• 2015

This paper investigates the change of the percolation threshold in the carbon powder-filled polystyrene matrix composites based on the experimental results of changes in the resistivity and relative permittivity of the carbon powder filling, the electric field dependence of the current, and the critical exponent of conductivity. In this research, the percolation behavior, the critical exponent of resistivity, and electrical conduction mechanism of the carbon powder-filled polystyrene matrix composites are discussed based on a study of the overall change in the resistivity. It was found that the formation of infinite clusters is interrupted by a tunneling gap in the volume fraction of the carbon powder filling, where the change in the resistivity is extremely large. In addition, it was found that the critical exponent of conductivity for the universal law of conductivity is satisfied if the percolation threshold is estimated at the volume fraction of carbon powder where non-ohmic current behavior becomes ohmic. It was considered that the mechanism for changing the gaps between the carbon powder aggregates into ohmic contacts is identical to that of the connecting conducting phases above the percolation threshold in a random resister network system. The electric field dependence is discussed with a tunneling mechanism. It is concluded that the percolation threshold should be defined at this volume fraction (the second transition of resistivity for the carbon powder-filled polystyrene matrix composites) of carbon powder.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.269-275
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• 2016

Multiscale hybrid composites, which consist of polymeric resins, microscale fibers and nanoscale reinforcements, have drawn significant attention in the field of advanced, high-performance materials. Despite their advantages, multiscale hybrid composites show challenges associated with nanomaterial dispersion, viscosity, interfacial bonding and load transfer, and orientation control. In this paper, carbon nanotube(CNT)/carbon fiber(CF)/polycarbonate(PC) multiscale hybrid composite were fabricated by a solution process to overcome the difficulties associated with controlling the melt viscosity of thermoplastic resins. The dependence of CNT loading was studied by varying the method to add CNTs, i.e., impregnation of CF with CNT/PC/solvent solution and impregnation of CNT-coated CF with PC/solvent solution. In addition, hybrid composites were fabricated through surfactant-aided CNT dispersion followed by vacuum filtration. The morphologies of the surfaces of hybrid composites, as analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, revealed the quality of PC impregnation depends on the processing method. Dynamic mechanical analysis was performed to evaluate their mechanical performance. It was analyzed that if the position of the value of tan ${\delta}$ is closer to the ideal line, the adhesion between polymer and carbon fiber is stronger. The effect of mechanical interlocking has a great influence on the dynamic mechanical properties of the composites with CNT-coated CF, which indicates that coating CF with CNTs is a suitable method to fabricate CNT/CF/PC hybrid composites.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2550-2555
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• 2002

Hybrid composites usually are defined as composites having different types of reinforcements such as fibers and particles. The major advantage of hybrid composites is able to control the material properties such as optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. For this reason, hybrid composites are widely used in automotive, marine, household, and electrical industries. The objective of this work was to investigate processing characteristics in the compression molding of hybrid thermoplastic composites. The mechanical properties of composites manufactured in various forming conditions were monitored. The composites contained randomly oriented long carbon fiber and carbon black in polypropylene(PP) matrix were used. The carbon fiber contents of composites were 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%, and carbon black contents were 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% by weight. Compression molding was conducted at various mold temperatures. Crstallinity was also measured by using X-RD. The tensile modulus of the composites increased with increasing the mold temperature. However, the impact strength of the composites decreased as the mold temperature increased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.29-32
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• 2001

The objective of this work was to optimize processing parameters of hybrid thermoplastic composites in compression molding. The mechanical properties of the composites manufactured with various forming conditions were measured to characterize processing parameters. Polypropylene(PP) composites containing randomly oriented long carbon fiber and carbon black were used in this work. The composite materials contained 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% carbon fiber and 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% carbon black by weight. Compression molding was conducted at various mold temperatures. The temperature of the material in the mid-plain was monitored during the forming. Crystallinity was also measured by using XRD. The tensile modulus of the composites increase, with increasing the mold temperature. However, the impact strength of the composites decreases as mold temperature increases.