New poly(arylate)/single-walled carbon nanotube composites as high strength structural materials

ORGN 624

Minsoo Kim, minsoo94@gmail.com and T. Randall Lee, trlee@uh.edu. Department of Chemistry, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, TX 77204-5003
This presentation describes the preparation of new poly(arylate)/single-walled carbon nanotube (PAR/SWNT) composites that have been designed to possess high tensile strengths. The composites were synthesized via environmentally benign transesterification polymerization in the presence of systematically varying amounts of SWNTs (0.01-2.00 percent by mass). The morphology and elemental composition of the composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. Their thermal properties were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC); their optical transparencies were evaluated by UV-vis spectroscopy.

Keywords: Poly(arylate), Single-wall nanotube, SWNT, Composites