Effects of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube (MWCNT) Content on Physical Properties and Cell Structure in Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Copolymer (EVA)/MWCNT Nanocomposite Foams

Abstract

Melt compounding is used to mix ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT). Then the obtained EVA/MWCNT mixtures were foamed using a chemical blowing agent. Without any modification of MWCNT, a significant improvement of the tensile properties was observed for the EVA/MWCNT foams. With increasing the MWCNT content to 10 phr, the average cell size decreases to 36 µm due to the higher melt viscosity and the average cell density increases to 10.5 × 106 cell/cm3 due the heterogeneous nucleation. To investigate the possible applications for static dissipative purpose, the surface resistivity of EVA/MWCNT foams was also investigated.