Develpment of carbon nanotube reinforced plastic composites

SEM image of ultra-long multi-walled carbon nanotubes drawn continuously

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are promising reinforcement of plastics as a substitute of carbon fibers. However, if typical CNTs are mixed with resin, high CNT content and control of the CNT orientations are impossible. Therefore, the very high strength of CNTs does not appear in these composites. Recently, Prof. Inoue (Shizuoka Univ.) developed spinning-able CNTs with a few millimeters, and using his CNTs, CNT reinforced plastics with high CNT content and unidirectional alignment are developed. Here, understanding the property of CNT/resin interface is very important to evaluate and improve their mechanical properties. Therefore, this study evaluates the CNT/resin interface by measuring the stress in embedded CNTs based on the micro Raman spectrometry.