Carbon 42 (2004) 2849–2854

www.elsevier.com/locate/carbon

Mechanical and morphological characterization of polymer–carbon

nanocomposites from functionalized carbon nanotubes
a,* a,b a,b a,b a,c a,b
M.C. Paiva , B. Zhou , K.A.S. Fernando , Y. Lin , J.M. Kennedy , Y.-P. Sun
a
Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0910, USA
b
Department of Chemistry, Clemson University, SC 29634, USA
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, SC 29634, USA

Received 29 February 2004; accepted 22 June 2004

Available online 14 August 2004

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes were functionalized with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The water-soluble PVA–functionalized carbon nanotubes
were then embedded into PVA matrix via a wet-casting method, resulting in polymer–carbon nanocomposite films with homoge-
neous nanotube dispersion. Composites with pristine and functionalized nanotubes were tested in tension. It was found that the
mechanical properties of these nanocomposite films were significantly improved compared to the neat polymer film. Functionaliza-
tion allowed good distribution of the nanotubes in the matrix, leading to higher film strength. Scanning electron microscopy shows
an apparent good wetting of the nanotubes by the PVA matrix. These results are supportive of good interfacial bonding between the
functionalized carbon nanotubes and the hosting polymer matrix.

2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: A. Carbon composites, Carbon nanotubes; C. Electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy; D. Mechanical properties

1. Introduction presence of carbon nanotubes [5,6] were developed for

There has been intense recent research concerning the
fabrication, characterization and application of poly-
mer–carbon nanotube composites, driven by a growing
recognition of the unique mechanical, electrical, thermal
and other materials-related properties of carbon nanotu-
bes [1,2]. In the fabrication of high-quality polymer–car-
bon nanocomposites with predictable and optimal
performance, a homogeneous dispersion of the carbon
nanotubes in the polymer matrix is required. Methodol-
ogies such as sonication of carbon nanotubes in a poly-
mer solution [3,4] and in situ polymerization in the
*
Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Polymer
Engineering, Institute for Polymers and Composites, University of
Minho, Campus of Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal. Tel.: +351
253510327; fax: +351 253510339.
E-mail address: mcpaiva@dep.uminho.pt (M.C. Paiva).
the homogeneous dispersion of the nanotubes in the
polymer matrix. Presently, the chemical functionaliza-
tion and solubilization of carbon nanotubes has
emerged as an effective means for the homogeneous dis-
persion of carbon nanotubes in solution and for the sub-
sequent wet-casting of polymer–carbon nanocomposite
films [7]. Improvement in the compatibility between
the functionalized carbon nanotubes and the hosting
polymer matrices have been discussed. For example,
Tour, Krishnamoorti and coworkers reported the func-
tionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes
(SWNTs) with diazonium salts, and the functionalized
SWNTs were used to form polystyrene-based compos-
ites [8]. These nanocomposites were found to have a
lower percolation threshold than those obtained with
pristine SWNTs. Sun and coworkers reported the func-
tionalization and solubilization of SWNTs and multiple-
walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) with polystyrene

0008-6223/$ - see front matter
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2004.06.031
2850 M.C. Paiva et al. / Carbon 42 (2004) 2849–2854
copolymers bearing hydroxyl or amine moieties for the
subsequent fabrication of polystyrene–carbon nanocom-
posite films using a wet-casting method. The films thus
obtained were found to have excellent optical quality,
and were free of any significant nanotube aggregation
effects [9]. Recently, they succeeded in functionalizing
carbon nanotubes with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) [10].
The resulting PVA–carbon nanocomposite films showed
excellent homogeneity. The homogeneous dispersion of
carbon nanotubes in the nanocomposite films was con-
firmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
imaging microtomed ultrathin slices of the films [10].
The objective of the present work is to study the char-
acteristics of nanocomposite films reinforced with PVA
matrix and single-walled and multi-walled carbon
nanotubes (MWNT). Films were prepared with pristine
SWNTs and SWNTs that were functionalized with a
low molecular weight PVA. Films with functionalized
MWNTs were also prepared for morphology studies.
It is hypothesized that functionalization of the nanotu-
bes facilitates their dispersion in the polymer matrix,
improving the homogeneity of the composite film and
thus the tensile properties.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
Aldrich supplied PVA matrix with a MW of
70,000–
100,000 (99% hydrolyzed). The PVA used for nanotube
functionalization was obtained from Alfa Aesar, and
had a MW of
22,000 (87–89% hydrolyzed). The SWNT
and MWNT samples were produced in Professor A.M.
RaoÕs laboratory (Physics Department, Clemson Uni-
versity) using the arc-discharge method and the chemical
vapor deposition (CVD) method, respectively [11,12].
The samples were purified by refluxing in an aqueous ni-
tric acid solution.
The carbon nanotubes were functionalized with low
molecular weight PVA by the N,N 0 -dicyclohexyl carbo-
diimide-activated esterification reaction, as reported
elsewhere [10]. The carbon nanotube contents in the sol-
ubilized samples of functionalized nanotubes prepared
in this study were 10–20% by weight, as obtained by
the defunctionalization method using thermal gravimet-
ric analysis (TGA) [10].
2.2. Film preparation
Using the wet-casting method, nanocomposite films
were fabricated from water-solutions of PVA–SWNT
and PVA–MWNT. In a typical procedure, a PVA poly-
mer sample (MW
70,000–100,000) was dissolved in
water by heating at 80 C and stirring continuously
for
4 h to obtain a 20% (wt/wt) PVA solution. An
exact amount of functionalized nanotube solution was
added to the PVA solution, briefly sonicated and stirred
overnight for effective mixing and for the removal of
trapped air bubbles. The resulting solution, viscous
and homogeneous, was cast onto a glass slide and flat-
tened to uniform thickness using a flat blade. The film
was dried at room temperature for 24 h, peeled off the
glass slide and dried overnight in a convection oven at
approximately 100 C. For comparison, a neat PVA film
and a composite film with purified SWNTs without
functionalization were prepared using the same proce-
dure. The typical dimensions of the fabricated films were
15 mm · 30 mm with a thickness of 50–100 lm. The car-
bon nanotube content in the PVA–carbon nanocompos-
ite films was varied from 2.5% and 5% (wt/wt).
2.3. Film characterization
Raman spectra were obtained on a Renishaw
RM1000 Raman Microscope equipped with a research
grade Leica microscope, a laser diode source emitting
at 785 nm with an output of 24 mW laser power, and
a RenCam CCD detector.
Tensile tests were conducted on film samples at room
temperature on a Rheometrics Miniature Materials Tes-
ter Minimat 2000. The samples were rectangular with
approximate planar dimensions of 25 · 4 mm2. Films
were cut into test samples using a razor blade. The sam-
ples were kept in a desiccator for at least 5 days prior to
testing. Tensile tests were performed on four types of
films: PVA only, PVA composite with approximately
5% weight of functionalized SWNT, PVA composite
with approximately 2.5% weight of functionalized
SWNT, and PVA composite with approximately 2.5%
weight of pure SWNT. The tensile tests were carried
out at a rate of 5 mm/min.
The resulting cross-sections formed after rupture of
the tensile specimens were analyzed by scanning electron
microscopy (SEM). The SEM images were obtained on
a S-4700 cold field emission scanning electron micro-
scope from Hitachi.
3. Results and discussion
As mentioned in Section 1, the carbon nanotubes
were functionalized according to the reaction scheme
presented in Ref. [10]. The functionalized nanotubes
were thoroughly characterized in that paper by TEM,
Raman, and other techniques. TEM clearly shows a
good dispersion of the functionalized nanotubes. For
the single wall nanotubes, it was observed that the initial
large ropes were split into smaller ropes and individual
nanotubes by functionalization. The Raman character-
ization of the functionalized SWNTs [10] show the char-
acteristic radial breathing mode at
170 cm1, as well as
 M.C. Paiva et al. / Carbon 42 (2004) 2849–2854 2851

45000 scattering. Typically, the relative intensity of this peak

PVA/Funct SWNT
to the centre of the G-band peak, ID/IG, increases with
PVA/Pure SWNT
increasing structural disorder and with decreasing crys-
Intensity (arbitrary units)

40000
tallite size (for graphite type materials) [13]. In the pres-
35000 ent study, the intensity ratio ID/IG remains similar for
both systems, 0.89 for the films with pure SWNTs and
30000 0.90 for the films with functionalized SWNTs. This is
an indication that no significant change in structural
25000 disorder of the nanotubes is produced by functionaliza-
tion.
20000 The results of the tensile tests in terms of YoungÕs
1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500 2700 modulus, yield stress and strain of the films and respec-
Raman shift (cm ) -1 tive standard deviations, corresponding to an average of
at least four samples tested for each type of film, are re-
Fig. 1. Raman spectra of PVA composite films with SWNT.
ported in Table 1. Fig. 2 shows typical stress–strain
curves obtained for the films.
the peaks found in sp2 carbon materials in general Fig. 2 shows the increase in strength and modulus
[13,14], namely the D band at 1310 cm 1, the G band achieved by incorporating functionalized nanotubes in
at 1595 cm1 and the G 0 band, a second harmonic of the PVA. The addition of pristine SWNT improves the
the D band, at 2595 cm1. modulus but decreases the strength. A decrease in
For the present work, concentrated solutions of these strength in a reinforced polymer is typically observed
functionalized nanotubes were diluted in PVA, as de- if there is an increase in the number and/or severity of
scribed in Section 2.2, in order to prepare films with the flaws. It is well known that pristine SWNT tend to
an approximate content of 2.5% and 5% (weight) of agglomerate to form ropes [15], and these ropes tend
functionalized nanotubes. to agglomerate into larger domains. These ropes of
The Raman spectra were collected for the composite SWNT contain a number of nanotubes that are not in
films with pure and functionalized SWNTs (Fig. 1), in contact with the polymer and are only bonded to each
order to monitor possible structural changes in the func- other by weak interactions that will fail at low shear
tionalized nanotubes, relative to the pure nanotubes. stresses. These nanotube domains, because of poor
The D-band is defined as a disorder induced Raman bonding, effectively become holes in the PVA which

Table 1
Tensile properties of the polymer and composite films
Sample YoungÕs modulus (GPa) Yield stress (MPa) Yield strain (mm/mm) Strain-to-failure (mm/mm)
PVA 4.0 ± 0.1 83 ± 1 0.038 ± 0.004 >0.60
PVA + 2.5% func SWNT 5.6 ± 0.4 97 ± 15 0.036 ± 0.004 0.05 ± 0.02
PVA + 5% func SWNT 6.2 ± 0.1 128 ± 2 0.038 ± 0.002 0.06 ± 0.01
PVA + 2.5% pure SWNT 5.4 ± 0.4 79 ± 1 0.032 ± 0.001 0.09 ± 0.01

150.0 PVA
PVA/5% Funct SWNT
125.0 PVA/2.5% Funct SWNT
PVA/2.5% Pure SWNT
100.0
Stress (MPa)

75.0

50.0

25.0

0.0
0.000 0.020 0.040 0.060 0.080 0.100

Strain (mm/mm)

Fig. 2. Typical stress–strain curves for PVA and for the composite films.
2852 M.C. Paiva et al. / Carbon 42 (2004) 2849–2854

Fig. 3. SEM micrograph of the fracture surface of a PVA/function- Fig. 4. SEM micrograph of the fracture surface of a PVA/function-
alized MWNT composite film. alized SWNT composite film.

smaller ropes, of SWNTs. Most regions of the fracture

act as stress concentrators that lead to strength and surface of the tensile specimens looked smooth, for three
strain reduction relative to the monolithic PVA. different samples observed, throughout the cross section,
PVA films with 5% functionalized SWNT show an in- at different levels of magnification. This may be an indi-
crease in YoungÕs modulus and yield strength of approxi- cation of good separation and dispersion of the SWNTs
mately 55%, relative to pure PVA. The films containing by functionalization. As explained in reference [10],
2.5% functionalized nanotubes show similar YoungÕs TEM observation of samples of PVA functionalized
modulus to the films with pristine nanotubes; the SWNTs cast from solution showed good dispersion of
improvement is more than 35%. Yield strength, as previ- the nanotubes, supporting the hypothesis of rope break
ously observed, decreases to a lower value than obtained down by functionalization.
for PVA, for the films formed with pure nanotubes, Micrographs obtained from the fracture surfaces of
while it increases considerably for the films with func- composite films with pure SWNT show that the nanotu-
tionalized nanotubes. This result may be explained by bes are most probably agglomerated in large nanotube
the tendency of pure SWNTs to agglomerate and not ropes, and that these ropes do not disperse evenly
be able to disperse in the matrix, while the functional- through the polymer. This is clearly depicted in Fig. 5
ized SWNTs disperse well and can be wet by the matrix that also shows a good wetting of these nanotube ropes
polymer. by the polymer matrix, as well as their tendency to
Fig. 3 shows a SEM micrograph of the fracture sur- agglomerate. The aspect is similar to the cross sections
face of a PVA film containing functionalized MWNTs. obtained for the composites with functionalized
After functionalization the MWNTs disperse well
through the PVA, and exhibit an excellent wetting by
the matrix. These observations are in good agreement
with the TEM observations of ultra-microtomed slices
of the composite film [10]. The micrograph of the func-
tionalized MWNT composite film is presented here as
an example for good dispersion and wetting by the
PVA matrix. The small dimensions of the films prepared
did not allow mechanical property determination for the
composites with MWNTs.
For the SWNT composite, if a good dispersion and
break down of the nanotube ropes is attained by func-
tionalization, the individual nanotubes will not be obser-
vable with SEM, due to their small size and the level of
magnification achieved. In fact, SEM observation of the
fracture surfaces of these composites did not show any
considerable amount of nanotubes. The cross-sections
analyzed showed rare formations, such as illustrated in Fig. 5. SEM micrograph of the fracture surface of a PVA/pure SWNT
Fig. 4, which can be associated with aggregates, or composite film.
 M.C. Paiva et al. / Carbon 42 (2004) 2849–2854
MWNTs, but the dispersion, in the case of pure
SWNTs, is considerably less homogeneous.
Mechanical properties of composites formed by a
PVA matrix and carbon nanotubes were reported in
the literature [16,17]. Shaffer and Windle [16] observed
an improvement of mechanical properties, as measured
by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, for the com-
posite films relative to pure PVA. The improvement
was only significant for composites containing more
than 40% in weight of nanotubes. Cadek et al. [17] re-
port an increase in YoungÕs modulus (obtained by nano-
indentation) of nearly 78% for composite films
containing 1% in weight of MWNT, but conclude that
this increment is mainly due to an increase in crystallin-
ity from 14% to 27%. They also observed that compos-
ites formed with PVK, that is mostly amorphous and
remains so after inclusion of the nanotubes, show no
considerable change in mechanical properties with the
addition of 1% of MWNTs. In both cases the compos-
ites were formed with as-produced nanotubes. More re-
cently, Zhang et al. prepared PVA composites with
HiPco single wall nanotubes, from an aqueous disper-
sion, assisted by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and
poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) [18]. The composite was
formed by PVA/PVP/SDS/SWNT in the approximate
proportion 100:8:2:5. The improvement in mechanical
properties achieved with the addition of 5% of SWNTs
to the system PVA/PVP/SDS was considerable, namely
an increase of 60% in modulus. The presence of bundles
of SWNT in the final composite films is reported.
In this context, the preliminary results described in
the present paper are encouraging, as they indicate a
considerable improvement in YoungÕs modulus and
strength at very low nanotube content of the composite
films. Functionalization does not seem to destroy the
nanotube structure, and may be an efficient means of
separation of the nanotube bundles.
The degree of crystallinity of the PVA matrix could
not be assessed by DSC because the polymer decom-
poses before melting. X-ray diffraction measurements
of crystallinity are being conducted on a new sample
set, which will be reported in a follow-on paper.
4. Conclusions
The incorporation of a small weight fraction of
SWNTs in the PVA matrix resulted in an increase in
YoungÕs modulus for all the composite systems. The
strength increased considerably for the composites with
functionalized SWNT, but decreased for the composites
with pure SWNTs, compared with the pure PVA. This
must be due to the difficulty in separating and spreading
homogeneously the pure SWNTs in the PVA matrix.
The functionalization appears to facilitate the disper-
sion of the nanotubes in the polymer, forming homo-
2853
geneous composite films and leading to a considerable
improvement in the film mechanical properties.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Center for Advanced
Engineering Fibers and Films at Clemson University un-
der the auspices of the ERC Program of the National
Science Foundation, Award No. EEC-9731680.
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