Piezoresistive properties of cement composites reinforced by functionalized carbon nanotubes using photo-assisted Fenton

A combined chemical technique for surface functionalization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is presented in this paper. The functionalized CNTs (f-CNTs) were employed to reinforce both the mechanical and electromechanical properties of cementitious composites for the purpose of developing intrinsic self-sensing sensors. With moderate functionalization, the f-CNTs were found to easily disperse in an aqueous system while just aiding with low fraction of dispersants: (a) polyethylene oxide (MPEG), (b) Trition X-100 (Tx-100). Both the FTIR and DSC results show that the oxidation effect of this combined technique were not as strong as those when using conventional strong oxidation methods. As a result, the integrity of electronic structure inside the f-CNT reinforced cement matrixes can be effectively maintained. This paper is aimed at exploring the electrical resistivity and piezoresistive properties of the f-CNT reinforced cement composites (f-CNT-RCCs). Both the monoaxial and cyclic compression tests were undertaken on the specimens with different f-CNT doping levels of 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%. Experimental results indicated that excellent piezoresistive properties were achieved at the doping level of 0.3%, wherein high strain sensitivity were recorded as 254.9 and 286.6 for the cases of adding small amounts of surfactants, MPEG and combination of MPEG and Tx100, respectively.