Characterization of the electrical and electromagnetic properties of CNT-based composites

Application of carbon nanotube reinforced polymers in space industry is widely dispread due to the unique and multi-purpose properties of them Therefore, extraction of electrical and electromagnetic properties of nanocomposite materials in the frequency band of 12.4 to 18 GHz is an important issue in their development procedure. In this paper, experimental investigations on electrical and electromagnetic properties of carbon nanotube reinforced polymers are performed. The investigated properties include AC and DC electrical conductivities, permittivity, transmission and reflection coefficients, loss tangent and skin depth in Ku frequency band (12.4-18 GHz). The in situ polymerization method is selected to fabricate multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/Vinylester nanocomposite. Ultrasonic device is used for dispersion of CNTs in resin and then Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) is employed for measurement of electrical properties of specimens. Weight fraction of MWCNT is chosen between 0.1 to 3 % in order to evaluate the influence of CNT content on investigated properties. Finally, equivalent circuit model is used to describe the observed behavior on the basis of semi-empirical study.