A conductive additive is prepared by dispersing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on Cu powder by mechanical milling and is distributed in epoxy to enhance its electrical conductivity. During milling, the MWCNTs are dispersed and partially embedded on the surface of the Cu powder to provide electrically conductive pathways within the epoxy-based composite. The degree of dispersion of the MWCNTs is controlled by varying the milling medium and the milling time. The MWCNTs are found to be more homogeneously dispersed when solvents (particularly, non-polar solvent, i.e., NMP) are used. MWCNTs gradually disperse on the surface of Cu powder because of the plastic deformation of the ductile Cu powder. However, long-time milling is found to destroy the molecular structure of MWCNTs, instead of effectively dispersing the MWCNTs more uniformly. Thus, the epoxy composite film fabricated in this study exhibits a higher electrical conductivity than 1.1 S/cm.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by  

• Effects of Morphologies of Carbon Nanomaterials on Conductivity of Composites Containing Copper/Carbon Nanomaterial Hybrid Fillers
  Yeonjoo Lee, Sung-uk Hong, Hyunjoo Choi
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2018; 25(5): 435.     CrossRef