Abstract
To investigate the effect and mechanism of pi-pi interaction between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and phenyl groups on the thermal stability of silicone rubber (SR), three kinds of silicone rubber with different phenyl content were used to prepare CNTs/SR composites in present study. Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated that the pi-pi interaction between CNTs and phenyl groups in composites is enhanced with phenyl content increasing. The results of thermogravimetric analysis and tensile testing before and after aging indicted the pi-pi interaction makes CNTs improve the thermal stability of phenyl SR more efficiently than that of methyl vinyl SR. The T (5) (defined as the temperature for 5% mass loss) of CNTs/SR-3 (with 10-20% phenyl content) is increased by 19.4 A degrees C compared to that of SR-3, and the final residual mass of CNTs/SR-3 (31.9%) is much higher than other samples under argon atmosphere.