Processing and properties of aligned carbon nanotube/glass ceramic composite

Previous attempts to produce carbon nanotube (CNT) ceramic composites have resulted in poorly dispersed, unaligned and non-continuous CNTs in the composites with modest improvements in properties. The research presented in this thesis pertains to the production of dense aluminoborosilicate (ABS) glass matrix composites containing aligned and continuous multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) of millimetre lengths. This was achieved by infiltrating CVD grown MWCNT preforms using a precursor sol and sintering which achieved 80 ± 2% dense composites. Focused ion beam milling together with image analysis showed that the composites contained 20 ± 2 vol.% MWCNTs, which are aligned and continuous within the glass matrix. Indentation studies showed greater damage tolerance in the composite compared to unreinforced ABS glass. Under compression, there is no significant change in the compressive strength between the composite and the unreinforced glass. The bend strength of microcantilever beams were 1.4 to 1.3 GPa for the composite and glass respectively. Elastic modulus of 84 GPa and fracture toughness (KIC) of up to 2.4 MPa √m were obtained for the composite. The elastic modulus and fracture toughness results are an improvement of 30 % and 240 % over that of unreinforced ABS glass. Fracture surfaces showed apparent MWCNT pullout lengths of up to ∼ 1 μm. Analysis indicates that crack bridging by intact MWCNTs provides the majority of the improvement in fracture toughness. Interlayer sliding of the MWCNTs and "sword in sheath" failure mechanism of the MWCNTs prevented the maximum potential performance, with respect to elastic modulus and fracture toughness, from being achieved. Electrical conductivity in the alignment direction of the CNTs showed improvements by a factor of 10E6 compared to unreinforced ABS glass. Furthermore, improvement of a factor of ∼ 10 in the thermal conductivity was obtained for the composite over that of ABS glass.