Effect of reinforcing amine functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoplatelets in epoxy on electrical properties

Abstract Effect of reinforcing amino functionalized MWCNTs (A-MWCNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) in epoxy has been investigated on the electrical conductivity. Incorporation of 0.25 wt% of A-MWCNTs and GNPs in epoxy improves the electrical conductivity by 5 and 6 orders of magnitude, respectively. Reinforcement of A-MWCNTs on the electrical conductivity is noted to be superior to GNPs. Though, the conductivity reduces with the increase in nanofillers from 0.25 to 0.50%. Amongst hybrid epoxy nanocomposites, epoxy reinforced with 0.25% of each A-MWCNTs and GNPs exhibits the highest conductivity (1.01E-05 S/m), attributed to the presence of 3-D interconnected network between nanofillers and epoxy.