Abstract
A network of entangled multiwall carbon nanotubes is presented as a conductor whose conductivity is sensitive to compressive stress both in the course of monotonic stress growth and when loading/unloading cycles are imposed. The testing has shown as much as 100% network conductivity increase at the maximum applied stress. It indicates favorable properties of multiwall carbon nanotube networks for their use as stress-electric signal transducers. To model the conductivity-stress dependence, it is hypothesized that compression increases local contact forces between nanotubes, which results in more conductive contacts. The lack of detailed knowledge of the mechanism as well as an unclear shift from individual contacts to the whole network conductance behavior is circumvented with a statistical approach. In this respect, good data representation is reached using Weibull distribution for the description of distribution of nanotube contact resistance.
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Acknowledgements
This project was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (MSM 7088352101), the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (GAAV IAA200600803) and by the Fund of the Institute of Hydrodynamics AV0Z20600510.
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Slobodian, P., Riha, P., Lengalova, A. et al. Compressive stress-electrical conductivity characteristics of multiwall carbon nanotube networks. J Mater Sci 46, 3186–3190 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-010-5202-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-010-5202-0