Regular Papers : Effect of Allyl Modified/Silane Modified Multiwalled Carbon Nano Tubes on the Electrical Properties of Unsaturated Polyester Resin Composites

Considering the properties of the carbon nano tubes (CNT), their inclusion into the polymer matrix vastly increases the properties of the resultant composite.However, this is not the case due to the poor interfacial adhesion of the CNT and the polymer matrix. The present approach focuses on increasing the interaction between the polymer matrix and the CNT through the chemical modification of the CNT resulting in allyl ester functionalized carbon nanotubes (ACNT)and silane functionalized carbon nano tubes (SCNT) which are capable of reacting with the polymer matrix during the curing reaction. The addition of ACNT/SCNT into unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) resulted in the improvement of the electrical properties of resulted nanocomposites in comparison to the CNT. The surface resistivity, volume resistivity, dielectric strength, dry arc resistivity, and the comparative tracking index of the nanocomposites were significantly improved in comparison to CNT. The chemical modification of CNT was confirmed via spectroscopy.