TY - JOUR
T1 - Hierarchically Structured Composite Fibers for Real Nanoscale Manipulation of Carbon Nanotubes
AU - Xu, Weiheng
AU - Ravichandran, Dharneedar
AU - Jambhulkar, Sayli
AU - Zhu, Yuxiang
AU - Song, Kenan
N1 - Funding Information:
W.X. and D.R. contributed equally to this work. This work is funded by the Global Sports Institute (GSI) at Arizona State University and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF, EAGER 1902172). The author would also like to thank David Lowry, at Eyring Materials Center, Arizona State University, for assisting with microtome.
Funding Information:
W.X. and D.R. contributed equally to this work. This work is funded by the Global Sports Institute (GSI) at Arizona State University and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF, EAGER 1902172). The author would also like to thank David Lowry, at Eyring Materials Center, Arizona State University, for assisting with microtome.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH
PY - 2021/4/1
Y1 - 2021/4/1
N2 - Carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced polymer fibers have broad applications in electrical, thermal, optical, and smart applications. The key for mechanically robust fibers is the precise microstructural control of these CNTs, including their location, dispersion, and orientation. A new methodology is presented here that combines dry-jet-wet spinning and forced assembly for scalable fabrication of fiber composites, consisting of alternating layers of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and CNT/PAN. The thickness of each layer is controlled during the multiplication process, with resolutions down to the nanometer scale. The introduction of alternating layers facilitates the quality of CNT dispersion due to nanoscale confinement, and at the same time, enhances their orientation due to shear stress generated at each layer interface. In a demonstration example, with 0.5 wt% CNTs loading and the inclusion of 170 nm thick layers, a composite fiber shows a significant mechanical enhancement, namely, a 46.4% increase in modulus and a 39.5% increase in strength compared to a pure PAN fiber. Beyond mechanical reinforcement, the presented fabrication method is expected to have enormous potential for scalable fabrication of polymer nanocomposites with complex structural features for versatile applications.
AB - Carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced polymer fibers have broad applications in electrical, thermal, optical, and smart applications. The key for mechanically robust fibers is the precise microstructural control of these CNTs, including their location, dispersion, and orientation. A new methodology is presented here that combines dry-jet-wet spinning and forced assembly for scalable fabrication of fiber composites, consisting of alternating layers of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and CNT/PAN. The thickness of each layer is controlled during the multiplication process, with resolutions down to the nanometer scale. The introduction of alternating layers facilitates the quality of CNT dispersion due to nanoscale confinement, and at the same time, enhances their orientation due to shear stress generated at each layer interface. In a demonstration example, with 0.5 wt% CNTs loading and the inclusion of 170 nm thick layers, a composite fiber shows a significant mechanical enhancement, namely, a 46.4% increase in modulus and a 39.5% increase in strength compared to a pure PAN fiber. Beyond mechanical reinforcement, the presented fabrication method is expected to have enormous potential for scalable fabrication of polymer nanocomposites with complex structural features for versatile applications.
KW - carbon fibers
KW - forced assembly
KW - multilayer fibers
KW - nanoparticle alignment
KW - nanoparticle dispersion
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U2 - 10.1002/adfm.202009311
DO - 10.1002/adfm.202009311
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099842036
SN - 1616-301X
VL - 31
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
IS - 14
M1 - 2009311
ER -