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Control of morphology for energy dissipation in carbon nanotube forests

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Abstract

This study focuses on the effect of carbon precursor on the carbon nanotube (CNT) morphology and energy dissipation. Benzene, toluene, and m-xylene were used as carbon precursors for the synthesis of CNT forests following a chemical vapor deposition process. The results indicate that substituents on the benzene ring increase entanglement in the CNT forests. The absorbed energy was slightly greater for CNT forests synthesized using m-xylene than for toluene, but was much smaller for benzene. When compressed to a strain of 0.67, the toluene CNTs absorbed more energy than the m-xylene CNTs. The restitution was much higher for the forests synthesized with m-xylene than toluene while it further decreased for the forests made with benzene. A strong correlation is also observed between the average diameter of the CNTs and the number of methyl substituents on the benzene ring. The control of the entanglement of the CNT forests can potentially be used to design high energy absorbing composites for blast energy dissipation.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by an appointment to the Postgraduate Research Participation Program at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL) administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and ERDC-CERL.

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  1. Environmental Process Branch, US Army Engineering Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL), Champaign, IL, 61826-9005, USA

    Matthew W. Brenner, Veera M. Boddu & Ashok Kumar

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  1. Matthew W. Brenner
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  2. Veera M. Boddu
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Correspondence to Veera M. Boddu.

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Brenner, M.W., Boddu, V.M. & Kumar, A. Control of morphology for energy dissipation in carbon nanotube forests. Appl. Phys. A 117, 1849–1857 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8812-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8812-6

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