Temperature Influence on the Shear-induced Alignment of Carbon Nanotubes in a Polymer Composite via Real-time Polarized Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

The temperature influence on carbon nanotube (CNT) rotation in a shear alignment experiment is studied through real-time polarized Raman spectroscopy. The CNT/epoxy suspensions were aligned at shear rates of 0.01-0.1 s-1 at a temperature range of -10 to 21ºC. Increasing the temperature was found to reduce the degree of alignment but has no impact on the speed of CNT rotation. The results were compared with the observations of alignment in an electric field and revealed different controlling mechanisms between the two alignment methods.