New generation of hybrid filler for producing epoxy nanocomposites with improved mechanical properties

Highlights: • Carbon nanotube–Muscovite hybrid compound was successfully prepared via chemical vapor deposition • The carbon nanotube-muscovite hybrid compound was dispersed homogenously in epoxy matrix • Carbon nanotube-muscovite hybrid compound filled epoxy nanocomposites show the improvement in mechanical properties. This paper presents a multi-scale hybridization of carbon nanotube (CNT) with clay in polymers, which offers improvement in the mechanical properties of the composites. In this study, hybrid filler, comprised of CNT grown directly on muscovite particles by chemical vapour deposition using methane as the carbon precursor, is prepared. This CNT–Muscovite Hybrid compound is incorporated into the epoxy matrix at various filler loadings (1–5 wt.%) and compared with physically mixed CNT–Muscovite. The tensile strength, tensile modulus, and micro-hardness of Epoxy/CNT–MUS HYB nanocomposites are determine to exhibit an improvement of up to 86.58%, 134.59% and 14%, respectively, compared to neat epoxy. These improvements are mainly attributed to by the good dispersion of CNT–Muscovite Hybrid in the epoxy composites.