Constructing Hybrids Consisting of Porous Silica Particles and Carbon Nanotubes and Their Polymer Composites

One type of 3D hybrid structure has been successfully fabricated by a chemical vapor deposition method, which consisted of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) shell and porous spherical silica core. A biphase reaction was employed to synthesize the porous silica spheres. The pores had an average size of 19.5 ± 9.4 nm, which offered an ideal place for the deposition of catalyst during the CVD process and enhanced the adhesion force between the particles and CNTs. The sonication test indicated that the porous silica-CNTs hybrids had stronger adhesion force than that of the pristine silica-CNTs hybrids. Then, an ultralow fraction (0.1 wt.%) of the hybrids was incorporated into epoxy matrix to prepare the composites. The storage modulus of composites has improved greatly comparing to the pure epoxy and pristine silica-CNTs hybrids/epoxy composite. A possible reinforcement mechanism has been described to explain the phenomenon.