Electrical and mechanical properties of blend films of ethylene-methyl methacrylate copolymer and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene with multi-wall carbon nanotubes

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) with copolymer ethylene-methyl methacrylate (EMMA) composite were prepared by gelation/crystallization from solution. The conductivity and Young's modulus were obtained as a function of EMMA content. When 5%w MWNT was admixed into neat EMMA known as a insulator, conductivity of the composite reached ca. 0.05S/cm, which was much higher than the conductivity of UHMWPE with 5%MWNT. This implied that the polar side groups of EMMA play an important role to transfer electrons between MWNTs. The UHMWPE-EMMA-MWNT composite containing 14% EMMqTCwDjxWA and 5% MWNTs could be stretched up to 50 times. The conductivity and Young's modulus reached 3.84×10 ^-3S/cm and 37GPa, respectively, which denoted a successful result preparing a conductive material with high modulus.