Structure–Property Relations in Carbon Nanotube Fibers by Downscaling Solution Processing
Abstract
At the microscopic scale, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) combine impressive tensile strength and electrical conductivity; however, their macroscopic counterparts have not met expectations. The reasons are variously attributed to inherent CNT sample properties (diameter and helicity polydispersity, high defect density, insufficient length) and manufacturing shortcomings (inadequate ordering and packing), which can lead to poor transmission of stress and current. To efficiently investigate the disparity between microscopic and macroscopic properties, a new method is introduced for processing microgram quantities of CNTs into highly oriented and well‐packed fibers. CNTs are dissolved into chlorosulfonic acid and processed into aligned films; each film can be peeled and twisted into multiple discrete fibers. Fibers fabricated by this method and solution‐spinning are directly compared to determine the impact of alignment, twist, packing density, and length. Surprisingly, these discrete fibers can be twice as strong as their solution‐spun counterparts despite a lower degree of alignment. Strength appears to be more sensitive to internal twist and packing density, while fiber conductivity is essentially equivalent among the two sets of samples. Importantly, this rapid fiber manufacturing method uses three orders of magnitude less material than solution spinning, expanding the experimental parameter space and enabling the exploration of unique CNT sources.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 11, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/adma.201704482
Entities
People
- Dmitri E. Tsentalovich
- Elie Amram Bengio
- Julián Berdegué
- Lucy Liberman
- Matteo Pasquali
- Matthew S. Lucas
- Olga Kleinerman
- Robert J Headrick
- Yeshayahu Talmon
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- Rice University
- Robert A. Welch Foundation
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
- United States – Israel Binational Science Foundation