Abstract

This paper explores the self-healing abilty of the ionomer called Surlyn® 8940 (manufactured by DuPont), a partially neutralised poly(ethylene-co-methacrylic acid) (EMAA) ionomer copolymer, and the improvement of the mechanical properties after adding a nano-reinforcement of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to the structure of the polymer. It begins with the manufacture the nanocomposite material, based on Surlyn® 8940 as raw material, and the mixture process with MWCNTs. Afterwards, an extrusion process was optimized to obtain a homogeneous reinforced filament, which was subsequently used to manufacture the final test samples by means of a 3D printing machine. Specimens with different concentrations of MWCNTs (0.0, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 % wt.) were manufactured, in order to test the mechanical properties and self-healing ability of unreinforced and nano-reinforced samples. The results show that nano-reinforced samples had an increase of their self-healing ability (increase for 0.5 y el 1% wt. of MWCNTs) and mechanical properties (σ_TS 18.35, 25.91, 26.92, 28.02 MPa to 0, 0.1, 0.5 y 1 % wt. de MWCNTs respectively). Specimens of 5% of MWCNTs have also been manufactured with different mixing times in the extrusion chamber to study the conductivity of the polymer. Electrical conductivity values ​​for 8 and 10 minutes of mixing times reached S/m units order have been obtained.