Development Of The Fabrication Process Of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polylactide Acid Nanofiber And Evaluation Of Its Mechanical Properties

Abstract

Due to the high surface area to volume ratio, nanofibers are expected to be used for a wide range of applications such as tissue engineering, filter media and reinforcements in composites. The electrospinning technique is a simple method for the fabrication of nanofibers. In this technique, a polymer solution is blown out from a needle hole, while an electric field is applied between a polymer solution and a target. During the electrospinning process, the solvent evaporates and polymer nanofibers are fabricated on the target. To add special functions to nanofibers, functional particle such as calcium carbonate and TiO2 were reported to be used as nano-fillers for nanofibers. Carbon nanotube (CNT), which has excellent mechanical, electrical, chemical resistance and electromagnetic properties, was reported to be reinforcement for bulk polymer resin and CNT is anticipated to be a reinforcing nano-fillers. However, due to challenges such as manipulating extremely small fibers, preparing samples of single-nanofiber and sourcing for accurate and sensitive force transducer, it is difficult to evaluate the mechanical properties of CNT reinforced nanofibers. In this study, CNT/PLA nanofibers were fabricated by the electrospinning method using the electrical potentials difference between two Cu strips of target and the mechanical properties of CNT/PLA nanofiber were evaluated. The morphology of the composite fibers and the dispersion of the CNT within the fibers were observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The tensile test of PLA and CNT/PLA single nanofiber were successfully conducted using a nano-scale tensile testing machine. The tensile strength of PLA and CNT