The Effect of Length on the Orientation Randomization of Aligned Carbon Nanotubes in a Polymer

Abstract

The speed of carbon nanotube rotation was analyzed using a real-time, in situ polarized Raman spectroscopy technique. Nanotubes dispersed in an epoxy matrix are aligned with an electric field, and the orientation randomization upon removing the field is shown to be a function of the nanotube length. Through a study of nanotube batches with different length distributions, a characteristic time to become unaligned was found to be consistent with the rotational diffusion of rigid rods in a polymer melt.