Composites Science and Technology 102 (2014) 59–64

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Composites Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

Effect of fabrication method on the structure and electromagnetic

response of carbon nanotube/polystyrene composites in low-frequency
and Ka bands
O.V. Sedelnikova a,⇑, M.A. Kanygin a, E.Yu. Korovin b, L.G. Bulusheva a,b, V.I. Suslyaev b, A.V. Okotrub a,b
a
Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, 3 Acad. Lavrentiev Ave., Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
b
Tomsk State University, 36 Lenin Ave., Tomsk 634050, Russia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Casting, forge-rolling, and stretching methods have been used for preparation of polystyrene composites
Received 5 May 2014 with 0.25 wt.% loading of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Electromagnetic properties of the
Received in revised form 23 June 2014 composites were studied using impedance spectroscopy and microwave probing in the Ka band. Analysis
Accepted 11 July 2014
of impedance spectra revealed capacitive behavior of the forge-rolled composite and charge tunneling
Available online 23 July 2014
through a polystyrene layer separating the nanotubes in two other composite samples. The stretched
composite demonstrated anisotropy of microwave response due to predominant orientation of nano-
Keywords:
tubes along deformation direction. The near-isotropic shielding efficiency of the forge-rolled composite
A. Carbon nanotubes
A. Polymer–matrix composites (PMCs)
was attributed to strong fragmentation of MWCNTs under applied shear forces.
B. Electrical properties Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Microwave absorption

1. Introduction
Polymer composites containing conductive inclusions are very
perspective for electromagnetic applications. Materials, which
have a predetermined arrangement of the inclusions and provide
the electromagnetic response in certain frequency range, are of
particular interest. In this context, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), con-
ductive quasi-one-dimensional nanoparticles, have attracted a
special attention due to extremely high shielding efficiency of
composites in gigahertz [1–6] and terahertz [7–11] regions even
at low nanotube concentration.
Electromagnetic characteristics of CNT-based composites are
governed by many factors, such as, the polymer nature, geometry
of CNTs (length, defectness, etc.), concentration and distribution
of nanotubes in matrix. Variation in any of these parameters could
drastically change property of composite material. For example, it
has been shown that lessening of the defect-free-length in CNT
walls results in reduction of dielectric permittivity, dc conductivity
and electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency of compos-
ites [2]. Microwave probing of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)
composite with CNTs detected a strong lowering of sample
transmission with a decrease of CNT diameter [12]. Dispersion
and distribution of CNTs in polymer matrix are also important
for composite properties [13].
For filling of polymers with CNTs, several methods have devel-
oped such as casting, spins coating [14], stretching [1,15], and
forge-rolling [9,10,16]. Our previous investigations have shown
that both stretching and forge-rolling results in alignment of nano-
tubes in polymer matrix and as a consequence in anisotropic elec-
tromagnetic properties of composites [1,2,9,10,16]. However, the
measurement results are difficult to correlate because the CNTs
have been produced in different synthetic conditions. Moreover,
the properties of anisotropic composites contained the same CNT
amount but fabricated by different methods have never been stud-
ied comparatively, while it was mentioned that every method has
own advantages and limitations [17].
The present work is devoted to investigation of the electromag-
netic response of three types of CNT/polystyrene composites pre-
pared using the nanotubes taken from the same batch and in the
equal amount. The composites were fabricated by a solution cast-
ing and forge-rolling or stretching of soft CNT/polystyrene film. The
measurements were done in low-frequency (1 kHz–2 MHz) and
microwave (26.5–40 GHz) regions and analyzed in a light of the
nanotube length and orientation.
2. Experimental
2.1. Carbon nanotube synthesis

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +7 383 330 53 52; fax: +7 383 330 94 89. Arrays of aligned multiwall CNTs (MWCNTs) were grown on sil-
E-mail address: o.sedelnikova@gmail.com (O.V. Sedelnikova). icon substrates using aerosol-assisted catalytic chemical vapor

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2014.07.013
0266-3538/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
60 O.V. Sedelnikova et al. / Composites Science and Technology 102 (2014) 59–64

deposition (CCVD) method. Synthesis was carried out in a quartz composite plate was dissolved in toluene and nanotubes were
tube inserting into a horizontal tubular reactor with a length of extracted. Fig. 2a shows typical SEM image of the sediment. A pres-
800 mm and diameter of 36 mm. Construction of set-up and details ence of polymer in the sample indicates good adhesion between
of synthesis are described elsewhere [18]. In brief, a 2 wt.% solution polystyrene and CNT surface. The sonication causes shortening of
of ferrocene in toluene was injected into reactor heated up to MWCNTs down to 50–70 lm, although nanotubes with a length
800 °C. The pyrolysis was performed in an argon flow during a half of 20 lm were also observed. Since during the stretching only
hour. The structure of the product was characterized by scanning elastic field from the polymer matrix is acted on nanotubes [21],
electron microscopy (SEM) with a Hitachi S-3400N microscope. their length should be determined by the sonication treatment.
SEM analysis revealed a vertical alignment of MWCNTs relative In contrast, a shear deformation applied to the composite during
to the surface of silicon substrate (Fig. 1). The height of arrays forge-rolling procedure disentangles nanotubes from their agglom-
was 130 lm. Concentration of iron nanoparticles in the nanotube erates [20] and distributes the filler evenly [19]. SEM analysis
channels determined by elemental analysis was 5 wt.%. shows that strong forces of the rolls may break the nanotubes
down to 3–10 lm (Fig. 2b). One can assume that such fragmen-
tation of nanotubes should change electromagnetic response of
2.2. Composite fabrication
the MWCNT/polystyrene composite noticeably in comparison with
the casted and stretched samples.
Three types of polystyrene composites with 0.25 wt.% MWCNT
loading were prepared. MWCNT array was gently detached from
silicon substrate and portion of sample taken in the required 2.3. Measurement details
amount was stirred with a toluene solution of polystyrene for com-
plete polymer dissolving. Then, the composite suspension was son- Measurements of real (ReZ) and imaginary (ImZ) parts of the
icated for 2 min using a high-power sonic tip (200 W) with the impedance of MWCNT/polystyrene composites were done regard-
purpose to improve nanotube dispersion. Obtained slush was cast ing a two-contact method with an impedancemeter Z-2000 (made
onto metallic plate and dried at ambient conditions. The plate pro- by ‘‘Elins’’, Chernogolovka, Russia) in a frequency range from 1 kHz
duced after complete solvent evaporation is believed to contain to 2 MHz. The examined region of composite plate located in cen-
randomly distributed nanotubes and in further discussion it will tral part of the measuring cell was 0.38 cm2.
be referred as isotropic composite. The thickness of this composite Microwave response of MWCNT/polystyrene composites was
plate was 220 lm. To provide predominant orientation of nano- studied using a vector network analyzer Agilent N5247A. The mea-
tubes in polymer matrix we used a procedure of forge-rolling or surement cell was a standard waveguide (7.112  3.566 mm2)
stretching. The details of forge-rolling procedure for polymer filling
with different carbon nanostructures are described elsewhere
[16,19,20]. A composite plate dried to a viscous state was repeat-
edly forge-rolled along a certain direction under the following con-
ditions. A linear speed of the rolls was 10–15 cm/s, a clearance
between rolls was 500 lm during the several first cycles and then
it was decreased to 200 lm. As the stretching procedure was
used, a soft composite plate was uniaxially stretched at a heating
(70 °C), which was provided by a hot air gun. A microscrew setup
led to stretching of the plate in half. Finally, the composites were
dried under a light load at room temperature. The thickness of
the rolled and stretched plates was 180 and 390 lm, corre-
spondingly. All the prepared plates had visually homogeneous gray
color.
Aspect ratio is an important parameter when interaction of
CNTs with electromagnetic field is studied. We used the nanotubes,
which grew simultaneously and hence initially had the near same
length. However, during the treatment they can be shortened. First,
effect of sonication was checked. Polystyrene matrix of isotropic

Fig. 2. SEM images of MWCNT sediment extracted from isotropic (a) and forge-
Fig. 1. SEM image of MWCNT array used for composite fabrication. rolled composite by polystyrene dissolving. Numbers indicate the nanotube length.
 O.V. Sedelnikova et al. / Composites Science and Technology 102 (2014) 59–64
supporting H10 oscillation. The composite samples placed in a
break of waveguide line were irradiated by electromagnetic wave
with the transverse electric field oriented either parallel or perpen-
dicular to the deformation direction (rolling or stretching). The
reflected (S11) and transmitted (S21) power was registered within
26.5–40 GHz frequency range (Ka band).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Impedance spectroscopy data
Impedance diagrams of the MWCNT/polystyrene composites are
presented in Fig. 3a and b. Real ReZ and imaginary ImZ components
of impedance of isotropic composite are considerably smaller as
compared to those for anisotropic composite plates. The forge-
rolled sample shows monotonic decrease of both ReZ and ImZ parts
Fig. 3. Frequency dependence of real ReZ (a) and imaginary ImZ (b) parts of
impedance (Z) for MWCNT/polystyrene composites produced by stretching (green
squares) and forge-rolling (blue triangles). (c) Complex impedance of MWCNT/
polystyrene composites. The insets show impedance of isotropic composite (red
circles). Numbers in (c) indicates logarithm of the frequency. (For interpretation of
the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)
61
with frequency increase. The impedance plotted in the Nyquist
coordinates (ImZ vs ReZ) is close to a straight vertical line (Fig. 3c)
that indicates substantial capacitive nature of the composite. The
frequency dependence of impedance spectrum of the stretched
MWCNT/polystyrene plate is quite different. The spectrum shows
no dispersion in the range from 10 kHz to 2 MHz, however, around
4.1 kHz (the correlation frequency fc) the ReZ component has an
inflection, while the ImZ component passes through a maximum
(Fig. 3(a and b)). This behavior is similar to that observed for the iso-
tropic MWCNT/polystyrene composite. The correlation frequency in
that case was 0.4 MHz. The complex impedance spectra of the iso-
tropic and stretched samples show well-defined semicircles with
diameters of 13.2 kX and 0.7 MX (Fig. 3c), respectively, charac-
teristics of bulk resistance of a material.
The impedance data can be analyzed using an equivalent circuit
consisted of resistor and capacitor [22]. Depending on geometrical
and electronic structure of material, network may be organized
through a series or parallel connection. In particular, the imped-
ance of CNT percolation film can be described by two parallel RC
circuits in series corresponded to conductivity inside of a nanotube
bundle and tunneling between the bundles [23]. In our case, where
the composites have a rather low concentration of nanotubes,
which are mainly isolated (see Fig. 2), the charge transfer from a
nanotube to another one takes place via a dielectric layer.
Frequency dependence of dielectric constant e and resistivity R of
the MWCNT/polystyrene composites are presented in Fig. 4a and b.
Reconstruction of dielectric characteristics was done as described
by Gavrilov et al. [20]. The measurement cell was considered as
two parallel Voigt elements, which correspond to own loss and
capacitance of experimental cell and composite material. For the
same content of MWCNTs, the dielectric constant of stretched com-
posite is two or three times larger than that of the forge-rolled sam-
ple, which properties are mostly governed by permittivity of the
unfilled polystyrene plate (epolystyrene = 1.9). At the same time, the
stretched composite was found to be more conducting than the
forge-rolled one. Further increase of the dielectric constant and
decrease of the resistivity were found for the isotropic composite.
The results presented show that dielectric response of MWCNT/
polystyrene composite is very sensitive to fabrication method. The
most important parameters responsible for this property are the
dispersion state and the size of carbon filler. Casting gives no pre-
dominant orientation of MWCNTs in polymer matrix and some of
the nanotubes can be perpendicular to the plate surface. As the
result, dielectric constant and conductivity in the cross-section of
the composite are considerably enhanced relative to those for
anisotropic composite plates. Despite the different orientation of
MWCNTs, the isotropic and stretched composites have similar fre-
quency dependence of impedance, although the shift of the maxi-
mum of the ImZ component from 0.4 MHz to 4.1 kHz indicates the
larger effective size of conducting inclusions in the latter compos-
ite [24]. The spectrum of the forge-rolled sample is distinct due to
differing in the length distribution of MWCNTs. Indeed, according
to the SEM investigation of sediments extracted from polystyrene
plates, the used fabrication methods provide effective disentan-
gling of nanotubes from their agglomerates. However, strong
forces of rolls break the nanotubes from the initial length of
130 lm to 3–10 lm (Fig. 3b), while average length of MWCNTs
constituting the isotropic and stretched composites is 70 lm. The
highly capacitive spectrum of the forge-rolled composite indicates
that distance between these short nanotubes is larger than that is
necessary for tunneling of electrons [25], and as the result the
charge carriers are blocked by rather thick polystyrene layer pro-
viding an insulating state for the composite (i.e. forge-rolled sam-
ple is below the percolation threshold). Response of the isotropic
and stretched composites with longer nanotubes can be attributed
to activation of conduction mechanism (i.e. the samples are above
62 O.V. Sedelnikova et al. / Composites Science and Technology 102 (2014) 59–64

Fig. 4. Frequency dependence of dielectric constant (a) and resistivity (b) for
MWCNT/polystyrene produced by casting (red circles), stretching (green squares),
and forge-rolling (blue triangles) procedures. (For interpretation of the references to
colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

the percolation threshold). Therefore we suggest that in these

cases average distance between MWCNTs becomes small enough
to provide efficient electron tunneling across the plate. Previous
investigations showed that percolation effect can be observed both
for the smaller [26] and larger [27] content of CNTs, than that we
have taken here.

3.2. Microwave probing

The electromagnetic response of MWCNT/polystyrene compos-

ites as a ratio of transmitted/input (S21) and reflected/input (S11)
signals is shown in Fig. 5. Both reflection and transmission spectra
in the Ka band are strongly dependent on the fabrication method of
composite. Reflectance (R), transmittance (T), and absorbance (A)
of the composites were reconstructed from the measured S-param-
eters for a thickness of a plate of 100 lm (Fig. 6). The isotropic
sample shields a one third of microwave radiation mainly due to
reflection mechanism (R  24%, A  10%). Ordering of nanotubes
in polystyrene matrix during the deformation causes decrease in
reflectance (no more than 5%) and increase in absorbance (no less
than 15%). The shielding efficiency of the anisotropic composites
strongly depends on the fabrication procedure: the transmittance
of the forge-rolled sample deteriorates as compared to the casted
one, while electromagnetic response of the plate produced by
stretching demonstrates noticeable enhancement in the shielding
efficiency. We relate the poor shielding ability of the forge-rolled
composite with strong fragmentation of MWCNTs.
Orientation of nanotubes in polymer matrix results in aniso-
tropic behavior for both reflection and transmission modes. The
forge-rolled composite has a negligible difference in microwave
transmission for parallel (T||  79%) and perpendicular (T\  82%)
orientations of the plate relative to polarization of the electric field.
A minor orientational dependence of S-parameters (Fig. 5b) indi-
cates poor ordering of nanotubes in polystyrene matrix after the
Fig. 5. Transmitted/input (S21) and reflected/input (S11) signals of isotropic (a),
forge-rolled (b), and stretched (c) MWCNT/polystyrene composites in frequency
range of 26.5–40 GHz. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
rolling. However, previously we found a considerable increase of
the permittivity of rolled MWCNT-based composites measured
along the deformation direction relative to the value measured
across [2,16]. Thus, we suggest that the forge-rolling procedure
results in arrangement of nanotubes in the plane direction of sam-
ple rather than along the deformation direction. Probably, the used
rolling regime was too fast to align MWCNTs in polystyrene matrix.
The stretched composite showed noticeable dependence of the T
and R parameters on the composite plate orientation (T||  40%,
A||  55%, and T\  60%, A\  37%). The value T\ is close to the
transmittance of the isotropic composite that indicates insuffi-
ciency of the applied deformation for full straighten of the nano-
tubes in polystyrene matrix. This technological disadvantage
could be eliminated by choosing more flexible polymer matrix.
It is of interest to compare the obtained results with microwave
electromagnetic response of other polymeric composites with car-
bon nanostructures. Due to light-weight, flexibility, chemical inert-
ness and high-performance, such materials are becoming more
 O.V. Sedelnikova et al. / Composites Science and Technology 102 (2014) 59–64
Fig. 6. Reflectance (a), transmittance (b), and absorbance (c) of MWCNT/polysty-
rene composites produced by different fabrication methods. Symbols ‘‘||’’ and ‘‘\’’
indicate orientation of MWCNTs in polystyrene matrix relative to the polarization
of microwave electric field.
preferred in comparison with the conventional metallic coating.
Reasonably good efficiency was found for the 700-lm-thick epoxy
composites filled with 1.5 wt.% of CNTs (T  60%) [4,5]. Such shield-
ing is comparable with the values T and T\ for our isotropic and
stretched composites, which, however, were thinner. PMMA and
epoxy composites with a 10 wt.% of onion-like carbon showed
60% microwave transmittance for the 1-mm-thick plate [28] that
also is close to our values. It was found that shielding efficiency of
MWCNT/PMMA and MWCNT/phosphate composites increases with
a fraction of nanotubes, and at 2 wt.% loading the composites are
almost opaque for radiation in the Ka band [2,6]. Addition of
1.5 wt.% of single-walled CNTs in epoxy resin improved the micro-
wave transmittance by 35% [5] that is the same as the value T||
for our stretched sample. The shielding efficiency of nanometer film
of amorphous pyrolytic carbon was found to be very similar to a con-
ventional mm-thick polymer filled with nanosized carbon struc-
tures [29,30]. To our best knowledge, there are only a few
investigations on the polarization anisotropy of electromagnetic
response of CNT-based materials. Thus, stretching of a MWCNT/
63
Fig. 7. Models showing CNT distribution in polystyrene matrix of isotropic (a),
forge-rolled (b) and stretched (c) composites. Dashed lines in (a) and (c) show
potential conductive path, circles in (a) and (c) indicate electron hopping regions.
Circles in (b) indicate capacitors.
PMMA composite had caused considerable increase of the dielectric
permittivity in the Ka band [1]. Textile composites from CNT yarn
exhibited considerable dependence of both shielding efficiency
and reflectance on the yarn package: they were almost transparent
for perpendicular orientation relative to polarization of the electric
field, while for parallel orientation the sample transmittance was
completely suppressed (S21  17 and 13 dB) mainly due to
reflection mechanism [31]. Considerable angular dependence of
the transmitted and reflected THz radiation has been demonstrated
for the rolled MWCNT/polystyrene composite [9,10]. Hence, we
should conclude that electromagnetic properties of the prepared
composites are comparable with those for shielding materials filled
with different nanocarbon forms, and this despite the fact that the
investigated plates were thinner and less loaded with carbon filler.
Moreover, we expect high THz anisotropy for CNT-based composites
prepared by mechanical stretching because this fabrication tech-
nique preserves long length of the nanotubes.
4. Conclusion
We have performed a comparative study of electromagnetic
properties of low-loaded MWCNT/polystyrene composites fabri-
cated by casting, forge-rolling and stretching techniques. We found
that fabrication method influences the size and distribution pat-
tern of nanotubes in polystyrene matrix (Fig. 7): the casting yields
isotropic arrangement of nanotubes in polymer matrix, the forge-
rolling results in fragmentation of nanotubes and alignment of fil-
ler in the plane direction of sample, the stretching results in
arrangement of nanotubes along the deformation direction. For
the same content of MWCNTs, the dielectric properties of compos-
ite with short nanotubes is governed by the properties of polymer
64 O.V. Sedelnikova et al. / Composites Science and Technology 102 (2014) 59–64
matrix, while the transition from the insulating to conductive state
was detected for the both composites with longer nanotubes.
MWCNT arrangement in polystyrene matrix enhances absorbance
of composite plate, while transmittance depends on the length and
alignment of nanotubes. Noticeable anisotropic transmission
detected for the stretched composite indicates high potential of
the mechanical stretching technique for the production of giga-
hertz polarizers.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research (Grant 14-03-90028 in a part of low-frequency measure-
ments and Grant 13-02-90711 in a part of the microwave
measurements).
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