Creep performance of CNT polymer nanocomposites -An emphasis on viscoelastic interphase and CNT agglomeration

Abstract The present work is aimed at presenting a multi-stage hierarchical micromechanical model to investigate creep response of polymer nanocomposites containing randomly dispersed carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Two frequently real situations-encountered fundamental aspects affecting the polymer nanocomposite mechanical behavior including the CNT/polymer interphase region and CNT agglomeration are taken into account. It is assumed that the CNT to be a transversely isotropic material and the polymer matrix obeys a viscoelastic constitutive law. The multi-stage procedure homogenizes the nanocomposite by exploiting a unit cell-based micromechanical model coupled with Eshelby method. Generally, an excellent agreement is found between the results of the current model and available experiment. The outcomes clearly prove that for a more realistic prediction in the case of creep performance of CNT-polymer nanocomposites, considering the (i) random dispersion and (ii) transversely isotropic behavior of CNTs as well as (iii) viscoelastic interphase region is essential. Moreover, when CNTs are not well-dispersed into the polymer nanocomposites, the three significant factors together with the CNTs agglomerated state must be precisely incorporated in the analysis to achieve a more accurate estimation of the creep response. It is shown that the CNT agglomeration dramatically influences and degrades the creep resistance of the CNT-polymer nanocomposites. Also, the effects of CNT volume fraction and interphase characteristics on the nanocomposites creep behavior are extensively examined.