Rheology as a Tool for Studying in Situ Polymerized Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposites
Résumé
Polymer nanocomposites are multiphase materials in which particles are dispersed in a polymer matrix at a nanometer scale. This chapter shows how rheology can be used as a tool for studying the kinetics of polymerization in the presence of nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), on the one hand, and rheological properties of the resulting polymer nanocomposites, on the other hand. It is based on the Couette analogy that consists in determining the dimensions of a virtual Couette, which are equivalent to those of a real stirred tank in terms of torque versus rotational speed relationship. The usefulness of rheokinetics is shown with the example of the activated anionic polymerization of e‐caprolactam (AAPCL) in the presence of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The rheology is also a useful tool to the percolation threshold of rheological properties of polymer nanocomposites. This is shown with the example of MWCNT/polystyrene nanocomposites