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Carbon nanotube fibers with excellent mechanical and electrical properties by structural realigning and densification

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Abstract

Floating catalysis chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD) direct spinning process is an attractive method for fabrication of carbon nanotube fibers (CNTFs). However, the intrinsic structural defects, such as entanglement of the constituent carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and inter-tube gaps within the FCCVD CNTFs, hinder the enhancement of mechanical/electrical properties and the realization of practical applications of CNTFs. Therefore, achieving a comprehensive reassembly of CNTFs with both high alignment and dense packing is particularly crucial. Herein, an efficient reinforcing strategy for FCCVD CNTFs was developed, involving chlorosulfonic acid-assisted wet stretching for CNT realigning and mechanical rolling for densification. To reveal the intrinsic relationship between the microstructure and the mechanical/electrical properties of CNTFs, the microstructure evolution of the CNTFs was characterized by cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), polarized Raman spectroscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. The results demonstrate that this strategy can improve the CNT alignment and eliminate the inter-tube voids in the CNTFs, which will lead to the decrease of mean distance between CNTs and increase of inter-tube contact area, resulting in the enhanced inter-tube van der Waals interactions. These microstructural evolutions are beneficial to the load transfer and electron transport between CNTs, and are the main cause of the significant enhancement of mechanical and electrical properties of the CNTFs. Specifically, the tensile strength, elastic modulus and electrical conductivity of the high-performance CNTFs are 7.67 GPa, 230 GPa and 4.36 × 106 S/m, respectively. It paves the way for further applications of CNTFs in high-end functional composites.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the financial support of the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2022YFA1203303), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52162007, 52163032 and 52202032), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2022M712321), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 2222094), the Jiangsu Province Postdoctoral Research Funding Program (No. 2021K473C), and the Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 20224ACB204011 and 20202BAB204006).

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Author notes

  1. Kunjie Wu, Bin Wang, and Yutao Niu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Multifunctional Nanomaterials and Smart Systems, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Kunjie Wu, Yutao Niu, Cao Wu, Li Chen, Yichi Zhang, Liwen Zhang, Yongyi Zhang, Zhenzhong Yong & Qingwen Li

  2. Division of Nanomaterials and Jiangxi Key Lab of Carbonene Materials, Jiangxi Institute of Nanotechnology, Nanchang, 330200, China

    Kunjie Wu, Bin Wang, Yutao Niu, Wenjing Wang, Tao Zhou, Li Chen, Xianghe Zhan, Ziyao Wan, Shan Wang, Yichi Zhang, Yongyi Zhang & Zhenzhong Yong

  3. School of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Yutao Niu, Li Chen, Yichi Zhang, Yongyi Zhang, Zhenzhong Yong & Qingwen Li

  4. Henan Key Laboratory of Materials on Deep-Earth Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, China

    Shan Wang & Zhengpeng Yang

  5. Beijing Graphene Institute (BGI), Beijing, 100095, China

    Muqiang Jian

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  1. Kunjie Wu
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Correspondence to Yongyi Zhang, Zhenzhong Yong, Muqiang Jian or Qingwen Li.

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Wu, K., Wang, B., Niu, Y. et al. Carbon nanotube fibers with excellent mechanical and electrical properties by structural realigning and densification. Nano Res. 16, 12762–12771 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6157-1

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