Rheological and morphological characterization of hierarchically nanostructured materials

Hierarchically nanostructured materials exhibit order on multiple length scales, with at least one of a few nanometers. The expected enhancements for applications using these materials include improved mechanical, thermal and electrical properties; however, control of the morphology which governs material performance and fabrication remains a challenge. The development of novel quantitative characterization techniques is important to connect the underlying morphology to relevant processing parameters and macroscopic behavior. Rheological and morphological analysis can illustrate these governing structure-property relationships for hierarchically nanostructured materials based on "O-D" polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) particles, "l-D" carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and "2-D" clay nanoparticles. We develop a technique, using small-angle X-ray scattering, which provides quantitative measurements of the morphological characteristics of CNT films, including shape, orientation, CNT diameter, and spacing between CNTs. The method reflects a locally averaged measurement that simultaneously samples from millions of CNTs while maintaining the necessary precision to resolve spatial morphological differences within a film.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Benjamin Ning-Haw

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robert E. Cohen and Gareth H. McKinley.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/38975
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/38975

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38975