Influence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on tensile and flexural properties of polyamide 66/short glass fiber composites

In this study, influence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on tensile and flexural behaviour of 15% short glass fiber (SGF) reinforced Polyamide 66 (PA 66/15SGF) and 30% short glass fiber reinforced Polyamide 66 (PA 66/30SGF) is investigated. Test specimens composed of neat PA 66, PA 66/15SGF, PA 66/30SGF and PA 66/30SGF/MWCNTs are produced using plastic injection moulding machine; and their tensile and flexural properties are characterized. The effects of MWCNTs contents on the micro-structure and morphology of the composites were investigated by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis (FTIR) and optical microscopy (OM). Mechanical analyses reveal that neat PA 66 exhibits the lowest elastic modulus, 2.11 GPa, and tensile strength, 60.61 MPa, while the highest tensile modulus, 4.69 GPa, and strength, 87.05 MPa, are exhibited by PA 66/30SGF/MWCNT and PA 66/30SGF, respectively. In other words, with the addition of MWCNT, tensile strength of PA 66/30SGF decreases by 13.4 % whereas the elastic modulus increases by nearly 4.7 %. In addition, flexural test results shows that the integration of MWCNTs improves the flexural strength and flexural modulus of PA 66/30SGF by 1% and 12%, respectively.