Theoretical and experimental study on the effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on improving the tensile properties and toughness of Vinyl ester resin

Vinyl ester resins are widely used in structural composites because of their excellent mechanical properties. One of the main goals of adding nanofillers to polymer matrix is to enhance the Young’s modulus and strength of the original base polymers. Due to the rigid structure of carbon nanotube as well as their aspect ratios, they can effectively increase the elastic modulus and stiffness of the polymer matrix. The main practical target of the present study is to obtain the best distribution of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with carboxylic group in order to simultaneously improve the elastic modulus, tensile strength and toughness of the resulted nanocomposite. In this regard, nanocomposites with six different weight fractions (wt%) of MWCNTs are made and the specimens are subjected to the tensile test. The results exhibit that addition of MWCNTs with low concentration leads to improvement in the mechanical properties of the vinyl ester polymer such that the optimum mechanical properties are obtained with 0.25wt% of MWCNTs. In this case, the fracture toughness, tensile strength and Young’s modulus are respectively enhanced by amount of 52%, 23%, and 14%. In order to validate the experimental results and investigation the role of MWCNTs on tensile behavior of vinyl ester resin, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used and the most important failure mechanisms are discussed and studied in details. Also, the experimental results are compared with existing theoretical models and a new correction factor based on Hirsch’s theory and experimental results is introduced for future industrial applications.