Preparation and characterisation of PE films of carbon nanotube/polyaniline (PAN) composite mixture

Polyaniline (PAN) composites filled with nanotube were prepared by twin-screw extruder in order to study the influence of PE reinforcing effect on the mechanical behaviour of the nanotube/polyaniline (PAN) composites. The mechanical property tests of the composites with and without PE were performed. The tensile and flexural strength of nanotube/polyaniline (PAN) composites with polyethylene (PE) was improved. In conclusion, the addition of PE favoured the improvement of the higher interface strength and so had good effect on improving the tensile and flexural properties of the composites. The dielectric strength was slightly increased with the PE content increasing and then decreased gradually. The hybrid film with 2 wt.% of PE shows the dielectric strength of 199 MV/m, which is about 6% higher than that of nanotube/polyaniline (PAN) film (188 MV/m).