Fabrication and Characterization of Multiwall Carbon Nanotube Polylactide Fiber Composites

An extrusion melt fiber spinner is proposed for the fabrication of Multiwall Carbon Nanotube (MWNT) Polylactide (PLA) fiber composites. The melt fiber drawing system includes only feed rollers and a draw roller to allow the investigation of as-spun properties of the PLA fibers without the conventional heat treatment. The influence of the drawing parameters on the fiber quality is characterized by measuring the fiber diameters and draw ratios. Preliminary studies demonstrate that orientation and dispersion of MWNTs is feasible with this melt spinner design with improvements on the mechanical and thermal properties. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results show an increase in the rate of cold-crystallization with increasing MWNT loading and tensile tests show that there is an optimal Young’s modulus for 0.5 wt% MWNT loading.