In this article, HNO3 (4 mol/L) was employed to open the ends of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and a 1:3 mixture of concentrated HNO3 and H2SO4 was employed to obtain acid-treated CNTs. Acetone was used as the solvent to introduce CNTs into epoxy resins. The bending strength of CNTs/epoxy resins composites increased with the increase of the CNTs content at first, and decreased after the CNTs content reached a certain value. The enhancement effect of acid-treated CNTs was better than that of end-opened CNTs, and not end-opened CNTs performed the worst. This was perhaps because the matrix could restrain the CNTs more effectively at each end of the CNTs if the CNTs were end-opened. Besides, the bending strength of the composites with CNTs with smaller diameters was higher than that of the composites with CNTs with bigger diameters.
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