摘要
Understanding the mechanical behavior of polymer matrix composites under the service conditions is of practical importance to improve structural durability and reliability. In this work, we study the microhardness of poly(methyl methacrylate)-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (PMMA-MWCNTs) composite as a function of the fraction of MWCNTs and the irradiation of ultraviolet (UV) light in a temperature range of 50–80 °C. Increasing temperature, heating time, and the weight fraction of MWCNTs causes the increase of the microhardness of the PMMA-MWCNT composite, while increasing the UV-irradiation dose causes the decrease of the microhardness of the PMMA-MWCNT composite. A first-order kinetic process is proposed to analyze the variation of the microhardness of the PMMA-MWCNT composite with time. The activation energy for the first-order kinetic process increases with increasing the weight fraction of MWCNTs, and decreases with increasing the UV-irradiation dose. The temperature dependence of the microhardness of the PMMA-MWCNT composite at equilibrium state follows the van't Hoff relation.