| Title | High performance carbon nanotube/polymer composite fibers and water-driven actuators |
| Authors | Sun, Yuping Hou, Keheng Zhang, Ding Chang, Shulong Ye, Li Cao, Anyuan Shang, Yuanyuan |
| Affiliation | Zhengzhou Univ, Sch Phys & Microelect, Minist Educ, Key Lab Mat Phys, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan, Peoples R China Peking Univ, Coll Engn, Dept Mat Sci & Engn, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China |
| Issue Date | 12-Apr-2021 |
| Publisher | COMPOSITES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY |
| Abstract | Advanced fiber materials made from nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have stimulated extensive interest recently; polymer infiltration represents a simple and effective approach to tailor the fiber structure and improve related properties, which deserves more thorough study. Here, we adopted an acid-assisted in situ and scalable polymer infiltration method to prepare continuous CNT/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite fibers, with combined high mechanical strength (up to 2 GPa, and 1.5 GPa at a gauge length of 5 cm) and electrical conductivity (3.16 x 10(5) S/m), superior than most of previous reports. Based on these, we further fabricated uniformly twisted helical CNT/PVA fibers retaining reasonable strengths (similar to 900 MPa) yet significantly enlarging the tensile strains to as high as 95%. Using the hydrophilicity of infiltrated PVA and the designed helical fiber structure, we created water-driven actuators with axial shrinkage reaching 47% of original fiber length. Our high performance CNT/PVA fibers have potential applications in areas such as multifunctional fiber-based electronics, artificial muscles, smart textiles and soft robotics. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/604849 |
| ISSN | 0266-3538 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.compscitech.2021.108676 |
| Indexed | SCI(E) |
| Appears in Collections: | 工学院 |
