Effect of Plasma, Gamma and Chemically Surface Modified MWNTs on the Rheological and Electrical Properties of Ethylene Methyl Acrylate (EMA) Nanocomposites.

Surface modifications of the MWNTs have been carried out by treating the as received MWNTs with plasma (N2 and O2), piranha (H2SO4/H2O2) and γ-ray irradiation under well specified conditions. Surface modifications introduce polar functional groups onto MWNTs surfaces. A variety of characterization techniques including FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, and XPS were employed to characterize the functional group introduced onto MWNTs after the modification.