Evaluation of the dispersion of carbon nanotubes in an elastomeric polyurethane and fatigue test

Abstract Two series of polyurethane (PU) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) based composites with 0.0, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mass% of CNT were obtained from diluting a commercial masterbatch with 30 mass% CNT and using two different dispersion methods. The quality of the dispersions was assessed using optical microscopy, and scanning and transmission electron microscopies. These tests showed that high controlled shear stress is necessary to produce composites with nanoscale dispersion: the elastic modulus improved by an average of 38% in the case of the high-shear dispersed materials in comparison with t...