Development of Functional Carbon Nanotubes -Asphalt Composites

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to prepare asphalt composites containing CNTs and to elucidate the characteristic properties of CNTs-dispersed asphalt composites.  In the present study, such composites were prepared using several types of asphalt emulsions as a binder.  As a result, both nonionic and anionic emulsions kept dispersed state, when combined with as-prepared CNTs.  However, cationic emulsions failed to keep dispersed state.  After several additional systematic experiments, it was found that cationic emulsion successfully retained an adequate dispersion state, when as-prepared CNTs were treated with acid solution and the following incremental addition of the pretreated CNTs.  The three types of CNTs-asphalt composites demonstrated higher performances in both penetration and microwave-absorption tests than asphalt composites including carbon black powder instead of CNTs, when the mass percentage of all carbon materials was the same