Nanocomposite, an innovative route to large structure and infrastructure protection. A case of study: CNT-doped polyurea

Abstract

In this work we focus on experimental studies of polymer-nanocomposites intended for passive protection of civil structures. The material consists of a polyurea-matrix enhanced by different quantities of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Several tensile and cyclic tests are performed to evaluate and characterize the mechanical behaviour of this nanocomposite. Furthermore, we subject the material to accelerated thermal aging and study its performance deterioration. The results on the unaged specimens indicate that an addition of 1% in weight of CNTs gives the best performance while other quantities result in suboptimal performance. However, after a long aging term, we find that these nanocomposites become more brittle and quickly break while the virgin polyurea recovers and gives the best performance.