Dimethylformamide: an effective dispersant for making ceramic–carbon nanotube composites

Fawad Inam, Haixue Yan, Michael Reece, Ton Peijs

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    122 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Carbon nanotube (CNT) and alumina dispersions were prepared separately in dimethylformamide (DMF) and ethanol by ultrasonication. The colloidal stability of the dispersions was monitored and a particle size analysis was performed to evaluate the size range of the agglomerates after different times. DMF was found to be a much more effective dispersant than ethanol for making stable, homogeneous CNT and composite dispersions. Alumina-CNT (4.65 vol%) nanocomposites were sintered in a spark plasma sintering (SPS) furnace. DMF dispersions produced homogeneously distributed and agglomerate-free CNT-alumina nanocomposites with higher electrical conductivity as compared to nanocomposites prepared using ethanol.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)195710
    JournalNanotechnology
    Volume19
    Issue number19
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2008

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