Mechanical and electrical properties of polylactic acid/carbon nanotube composites by rolling process

In this work, the rolling process was employed to fabricate polylactic acid/multi-walled carbon nanotube (PLA/MWCNT) composites at room temperature. The effects of the rolling conditions on the mechanical and electrical properties of the fabricated composites were investigated. The evolution processes of the internal molecular structures, i.e. changes in molecular orientation and crystallinity, were examined by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and density method. The results suggested that the molecular orientation improved; however, the crystallinity decreased when the rolling ratio increased. The analysis of the mechanical properties revealed that the rolled composites displayed anisotropy during the rolling process. In the rolling direction, after adding 1 wt.% MWCNTs, the tensile strength increased from 58.6 to 94.3 MPa with the rolling ratio, whereas the fracture strain sharply increased to 131.5% at the rolling ratio of 60%. In addition to the mechanical properties, electrical resistivity was also investigated; notably, this property was not significantly affected by the rolling process. Furthermore, the MWCNT dispersion and morphology were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. These findings offer a simple and effective method to fabricate conductive composites with excellent mechanical properties.