Quartz, glass, and glass-ceramic matrix nanocomposites; containing carbon nanotubes: a review

Abstract

Various concepts of techniques for incorporating carbon nanotubes in quartz, glass and glass-ceramic matrices are overviewed. Mechanical; in particular fracture toughness, hardness and strength, physical; density and microstructures, and functional; thermal and electrical conductivities of the fabricated CNT-loaded nanocomposites via different processing route and measuring techniques were compared and reported. Processing challenges such as the homogenous dispersion of the CNTs in the quartz, glass and glassceramic matrices and the loss of graphitic nanotubes during the consolidation process are still the major impending issues in CNT-quartz/glass/glass-ceramic matrix nanocomposites. There is need to explore in-situ production techniques, spark plasma sintering consolidation method, and controlled colloidal/sol-gel processes for CNTquartz/glass/glass-ceramic matrix nanocomposites.