Development of chemically grafted multiwall carbon nanotube onto cellulose fiber sheet and polyurethane based resin composite for an active paper

Abstract

Cellulose fibers (CFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were successfully developed on polyurethane substrate as a flexible composite paper. With small amount of CNTs, the composite was prepared by a suction filtration method. The existence of CNT additive in cellulose matrix was investigated based on the correlation of mechanical properties, thermal stability, and electrical properties. Although the highly transparent cellulose sheets impregnated with polyurethane were successfully fabricated, the low transmittance was obtained as the increasing of CNT additive. However, the dielectric properties of composite were enhanced with an addition of CNTs in the composite paper. The electrical conductivity was increased from the insulator to 4.91  10-4 Scm-1 at small amount of CNTs of 5 wt%. In addition, the minimal amount of CNTs of 1.5% showed the transmittance of 35%, adequate dielectric constant, and the conductivity of 5.59 × 10-7 Scm-1. The role of CNTs with well distribution presents as a polar cluster of well-defined electrically charge in cellulose composite.