Evaluarea performanţelor mecanice, termice si tribologice ale compozitelor cu matrice poliesterică şi nanotuburi de carbon

Abstract

This paper presents a study of polyester composites in terms of mechanical, thermal and tribological properties. For this research, an unsaturated polyester was selected as matrix, a thermoset material used on industrial scale because it demonstrates superior properties in applications, but also because of the low price as compared to other polymeric materials. In the last years, research has been focused on adding nanomaterials into polymer matrix because of the benefits brought to new composites. From nanomaterials group, carbon nanotubes are used in many recent published studies. Due to the novelty represented by these materials, in this study, several types of carbon nanotubes in various massic concentrations were used. In order to obtain enhanced properties for final composites, in polyester matrix, three types of nanomaterials were introduced, such as multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), functionalized multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-COOH) and single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT). There were obtained nine different polyester composites, by using concentrations of 0,10 % wt, 0,15 % wt and 0,20 % wt, for each type of nanotubes. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of low concentration of carbon nanotubes on the final composites properties. For this purpose it was necessary to study the scientific literature in order to obtain recent information concerning polyester composites, preparation methods, type of tests and test conditions.