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Efficiently Dispersing Carbon Nanotubes In Polyphenylene Sulfide, Kevin M. Sommer, R. Byron Pipes
Efficiently Dispersing Carbon Nanotubes In Polyphenylene Sulfide, Kevin M. Sommer, R. Byron Pipes
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Thermal plastics are replacing conventional metals in the aerospace, sporting, electronics, and other industries. Thermal plastics are able to withstand relatively high temperatures, have good fatigue properties, and are lighter than metals. Unfortunately, they are not very electrically conductive. However, adding carbon nanotubes to thermal plastics such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) can drastically increase the plastic's conductivity at a low weight percent of nanotubes called the percolation threshold. The percolation threshold is the point where adding a little more carbon nanotubes brings together the network of nanotubes and greatly increases the conductivity. We need to learn how to increase the …