Creating a Conductive Surface of the PMMA by Laser Cladding with DWCNT and MWCNTS

Abstract

This work studied the electrical and thermal surface conductivity enhancement of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) clouded by double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) by using pulsed Nd:YAG laser. Variable input factors are considered as the laser energy (or the relevant power), pulse duration and pulse repetition rate. Results indicated that the DWCNTs increased the PMMA’s surface electrical conductivity from 10-15 S/m to 0.813×103 S/m while the MWCNTs raised it to 0.14×103 S/m. Hence, the DWCNTs achieved an increase of almost 6 times than that for the MWCNTs. Moreover, the former increased the thermal conductivity of the surface by 8 times and the later by 5 times.