Reinforced cyanate ester resins with carbon nanotubes: Surface modification, reaction activity and mechanical properties analyses

The reinforcement and toughness of cyanate ester (CE) resins with multiwalls carbon nanotubes (MW-CNTs) were investigated in this paper. Based on the surface modification of MW-CNTs, the reaction activity of CE resins, desperation of MW-CNTs, mechanical properties and thermal properties of MW-CNTs/CE composites were addressed. TEM and XRD analyses demonstrate that the MW-CNTs with regular arrangement and perfect crystals structures can be achieved after the treatments with pyrolysis and dense HNO₃/H₂SO₄ acids oxidation. The reaction activity of CE systems with MW-CNTs is increased with the incorporation of carbon nanotubes. The mechanical analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) indicate that the addition of MW-CNTs can enhance both impact strength and flexural strength of cured CE resins without decreasing their thermal stability. The storage module for the MW-CNTs/CE composites is much higher than that of the pure CE sample in a wide temperature range. After aging in boiling distilled water, the water absorption of is less than that of CE resins.