Modeling composites of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in polycarbonate

Abstract

High strain rate experiments performed on multi-walled carbon nanotubes, polycarbonate composites (MWCNT-PC) have exhibited enhanced impact resistance under a dynamic strain rate of nearly 2500/s with composition of only 0.5 to 2.0% multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in pure polycarbonate (PC). Similarly, hardness and elastic modulus under static loads resulted in a significant increase, depending upon the composition of MWCNTs in PC. The present work aims to analyze these results by correlating the data to fit expressions in generalizing the behavior of MWCNTs composition for MWCNT-PC composites under both static and impact loads. As a result, we found that an optimum composition of 2.1 weight % of MWCNTs exhibits maximum stress resistance within elastic range under strain rates of nearly 2500/s for MWCNT-PC composites. The composition of MWCNTs plays a crucial role in maximizing modification of static and dynamic impact-based mechanical properties of polycarbonates. Further, a simple model based on Lennard–Jones 6–12 atom-atom based potential is formulated and used to compute preliminary estimates of static properties of pure as well as composite PC with the aim to modify this in subsequent approaches.