Effect of Strain Rate on Tensile Properties of Injection Molded Multiwall Carbon Nanotube Reinforced PA 6/6 Nanocomposites

Abstract The mechanical properties of polymers highly depend on the loading rate, however, the effect of loading/strain rate with the addition of Carbon Nanotube is not well understood. In this study, the effect of Carbon Nanotube (CNT) content on the rate dependence of polymers was studied. Injection molded mini-tensile samples with CNT content ranging from 0 to 15wt% at strain rates of .0006, .0013, .0019 and .0025 s−1 were tested. It was found that as strain rate increased, the ultimate strength and Young s Modulus of the tensile specimens increased. It was also shown that addition of CNT will lower the chain mobility of polymer and lower the polymer dependence of properties to strain rates.