Bridge effect of carbon nanotubes on the electrical properties of expanded graphite/poly(ethylene terephthalate) nanocomposites

In this work, expanded graphite (EG)-reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nanocomposites were prepared by the melt mixing method and the content of the EG was fixed as 2 wt%. The effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as a co-carbon filler on the electrical and mechanical properties of the EG/PET was investigated. The results showed that the electrical and mechanical properties of the EG/PET were significantly increased with the addition of MWCNTs, showing an improvement over those of PET prepared with EG alone. This was most likely caused by the interconnections in the MWCNTs between the EG layers in the PET matrix. It was found that the addition of the MWCNTs into EG/PET led to dense conductive networks for easy electron transfers, indicating a bridge effect of the MWCNTs.