The influence of the dispersion method on the electrical properties of vapor-grown carbon nanofiber/epoxy composites
1 Center/Department of Physics, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
2 IPC/I3N--Institute for Polymers and Composites, University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
3 Chemical & Materials Engineering, University of Dayton, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-0246, USA
4 School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Campus do IPCA, 4750-810 Barcelos, Portugal
Nanoscale Research Letters 2011, 6:370 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-6-370Published: 4 May 2011
The influence of the dispersion of vapor-grown carbon nanofibers (VGCNF) on the electrical properties of VGCNF/Epoxy composites has been studied. A homogenous dispersion of the VGCNF does not imply better electrical properties. In fact, it is demonstrated that the most simple of the tested dispersion methods results in higher conductivity, since the presence of well-distributed nanofiber clusters appears to be a key factor for increasing composite conductivity.
PACS: 72.80.Tm; 73.63.Fg; 81.05.Qk