N-phenyl maleimide grafted MWNT/bismaleimide-allyl bisphenol A nanocomposites: Improved MWNT dispersion, resin reactivity and composite mechanical strength

Due to the high thermal resistance property and low moisture absorption, bismaleimide (BMI) resin has gained great interests in aerospace industries. However, materials made of pure BMI resin often encounter high brittleness and relatively low mechanical strength. In this investigation, N-phenyl maleimide (N-PMI) functional groups were grafted to acidified multi-walled CNTs (MWNT-COOH) to form MWNT-N-PMI through a series of grafting including the Michael addition reaction. MWNT-N-PMI can be uniformly dispersed in BMI/allyl bisphenol A (BMI-BA) resins only with a hand stirring. The addition of N-PMI-MWNT enhanced the reaction activity of BMI-BA resin and mechanical properties of N-PMI-MWNT/BMI-BA composites was significantly higher than that of BMI-BA reinforced by MWNT-COOH.