The effect of polymer spatial configuration on the microwave absorbing properties of non-covalent modified MWNTs

The polar polymer of linear and star polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was used to modify the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Raman and TGA were used to characterize structure of the functionalized MWNTs. The effect of polymer spatial configuration on the MWNTs dispersion, morphology and interfacial interaction was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The aim of the work is to investigate the effect of polymer spatial configuration on the microwave absorbing properties. The results showed that the maximum reflection loss of linear PMMA/MWNTs hybrids was −37 dB in the frequency of 8.8 GHz, and the bandwidth below −10 dB was more than 2.1 GHz. While the maximum reflection loss of the S-PMMA/MWNTs hybrids reached −50 dB in the frequency of 8.4 GHz, and the bandwidth below −10 dB was 2.3 GHz. The results indicated that the microwave absorbing properties of star PMMA polymers modified MWNTs were superior to that of linear PMMA polymers.