title: Direct measurements of the mechanical strength of carbon nanotube-poly(methyl methacrylate) interfaces.
abstract: Understanding the interfacial stress transfer between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polymer matrices is of great importance to the development of CNT-reinforced polymer nanocomposites. In this paper, an experimental study is presented of the interfacial strength between individual double-walled CNTs and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) using an in situ nanomechanical single-tube pull-out testing scheme inside a high-resolution electron microscope. By pulling out individual tubes with different embedded lengths, this work reveals the shear lag effect on the nanotube-polymer interface and demonstrates that the effective interfacial load transfer occurs only within a certain embedded length. These results show that the CNT-PMMA interface possesses an interfacial fracture energy within 0.054-0.80 J/m(2) and a maximum interfacial strength within 85-372 MPa. This work is useful to better understand the local stress transfer on nanotube-polymer interfaces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Cheol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Changhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ke
keywords: carbon nanotubes; interfaces; interfacial strength; nanocomposites; nanomechanical testing