KCS

PAN-based carbon nanofiber webs (CNFW) can be prepared through stabilization and carbonization processes of electrospun PAN-based nanofiber webs. No papers on polymer composites with such carbon nanofiber webs have been reported yet. Recently, novel CNFW/thermoplastic and CNFW/thermosetting polymer composites were prepared in our lab and it has been found that the composite materials strongly influence the electrical resistivity and the thermal properties like thermal stability, thermomechanical stability, and dynamic storage modulus of neat polymer resins, for instance, high density polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, and unsaturated polyester. The investigation was performed with the composites consisting of different layers (different concentrations) of CNFW. The results demonstrate that the electrical resistivity was remarkably reduced and the thermal properties were significantly improved with incorporating a very few layers of CNFW into each polymer resin. Their fracture surfaces revealed a very uniform dispersion of carbon nanofibers in the polymer matrix, exhibiting three-dimensionally networked structure of carbon nanofibers.