From 'Strong' to 'Much Stronger': Utilization of Green Tea Extract Dispersant for SWCNT-Reinforced Polymer Composites.

PVA is reinforced with SWCNTs using green tea extract as a dispersant to achieve good dispersion of the SWCNTs in an organic solvent and finally high-performance composite fibers. A combination of green tea extract/DMSO/SWCNT/PVA is found to disperse larger aggregates of SWCNTs to individual or thin bundles of a few nanotubes. Incorporation of 0.5 wt% SWCNTs into PVA fibers yields a tensile strength of 2.42 GPa, a Young's modulus of 46 GPa, toughness of 105 J · g−1 at a failure strain of 11%, and a loop strength of 245 MPa, much higher than the values of commercial PVA fibers. The incorporation of highly dispersed SWCNTs suppresses the fibrillation tendency of the PVA fibers. The applied load is effectively transferred from the matrix to the SWCNTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]