Effect of Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT) on Hardness of Polypropylene Matrix

Hardness is an important mechanical property which determines the applicability of polymer composites. Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) invented by Iijima by arc-discharge technique. It possesses some unique properties like Young’s modulus, the values varies from 0.42 to 4.15 TPa, tensile strength of 1 TPa, density varies between 1.3 and 3 g/cm3 which is comparatively lower than commercial carbon fibers. This makes CNT as a potential reinforcement with metal and polymers for enhancement of properties. This work describes about preparation of PP-CNT composites with different ratios. Hardness of the composites were measured using Nanoindentation method and found that hardness of the PP-CNT system increases significantly with the increase of CNT proportion in the PP matrix.