Macroscopic Fibers and Ribbons of Oriented Carbon Nanotubes

TLDR

The authors assemble single‑walled carbon nanotubes into long ribbons and fibers by dispersing them in surfactant, recondensing them in a polymer‑solution flow to form a nanotube mesh, and then collating the mesh into a fiber, with flow‑induced alignment producing ribbon‑like orientation. The resulting nanotube fibers exhibit exceptional flexibility, bending without breaking, and possess an elastic modulus ten times that of high‑quality bucky paper.

Abstract

A simple method was used to assemble single-walled carbon nanotubes into indefinitely long ribbons and fibers. The processing consists of dispersing the nanotubes in surfactant solutions, recondensing the nanotubes in the flow of a polymer solution to form a nanotube mesh, and then collating this mesh to a nanotube fiber. Flow-induced alignment may lead to a preferential orientation of the nanotubes in the mesh that has the form of a ribbon. Unlike classical carbon fibers, the nanotube fibers can be strongly bent without breaking. Their obtained elastic modulus is 10 times higher than the modulus of high-quality bucky paper.