The adhesive bonding with buckypaper-carbon nanotube/epoxy composite adhesives cured by Joule heating

Detrimental positive feedback effect due to the semi-conductive nature of carbon nanotube (CNT) was found in Joule heating of CNT/epoxy composite adhesives. In this work a process was developed to overcome the positive feedback effect by using a buckypaper-CNT/epoxy composite plaster patch. With this process, not only the positive feedback effect can be avoided but also more uniform curing of the CNT/epoxy adhesive can be obtained with a beneficial negative feedback effect. This process requires only simple equipment and is theoretically the most time and energy saving process for curing epoxy adhesive. The addition of CNTs in the epoxy can provide better heat transfer and strengthening of the epoxy adhesive. With the use of buckypaper/0.5% CNT/epoxy adhesive cured by Joule heating, the bonding strength increased significantly to be 67% higher compared to conventionally cured specimen with pure epoxy.