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Register a new userGroove-Assisted Global Spontaneous Alignment of Carbon Nanotubes in Vacuum Filtration
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Ever since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), it has long been a challenging goal to create macroscopically ordered assemblies, or crystals, of CNTs that preserve the one-dimensional quantum properties of individual CNTs on a macroscopic scale. Recently, a simple and well-controlled method was reported for producing wafer-scale crystalline films of highly aligned and densely packed CNTs through spontaneous global alignment that occurs during vacuum filtration [textit{Nat. Nanotechnol}. textbf{11}, 633 (2016)]. However, a full understanding of the mechanism of such global alignment has not been achieved. Here, we report results of a series of systematic experiments that demonstrate that the CNT alignment direction can be controlled by the surface morphology of the filter membrane used in the vacuum filtration process. More specifically, we found that the direction of parallel grooves pre-existing on the surface of the filter membrane dictates the direction of the resulting CNT alignment. Furthermore, we intentionally imprinted periodically spaced parallel grooves on a filter membranes using a diffraction grating, which successfully defined the direction of the global alignment of CNTs in a precise and reproducible manner.
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Over the past decade, substantial progress has been made in the chemical processing (chiral enrichment, length sorting, handedness selectivity, and filling substance) of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Recently, it was shown that large, horizontally-aligned films can be created out of post-processed SWCNT solutions. Here, we use machine-vision automation and parallelization to simultaneously produce globally-aligned SWCNT films using pressure-driven filtration. Feedback control enables filtration to occur with a constant flow rate that not only improves the nematic ordering of the SWCNT films, but also provides the ability to align a wide range of SWCNT types and on a variety of nanoporous membranes using the same filtration parameters. Using polarized optical spectroscopic techniques, we show that meniscus combing produces a two-dimensional radial SWCNT alignment on one side of the film. After we flatten the meniscus through silanation, spatially-resolved nematicity maps on both sides of the SWCNT film reveal global alignment across the entire structure. From experiments changing ionic strength and membrane tribocharging, we provide evidence that the SWCNT alignment mechanism stems from an interplay of intertube interactions and ordered membrane charging. This work opens up the possibility of creating globally-aligned SWCNT film structures for a new-generation of nanotube electronics and optical control elements.
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)-polymer composites are promising candidates for a myriad of applications. Ad-hoc CNTs-polymer composite fabrication techniques inherently pose roadblock to optimized processing resulting in microstructural defects i.e., void formation, poor interfacial adhesion, wettability, and agglomeration of CNTs inside the polymer matrix. Although improvement in the microstructures can be achieved via additional processing steps such as-mechanical methods and/or chemical functionalization, the resulting composites are somewhat limited in structural and functional performances. Here, we demonstrate that 3D printing technique like-direct ink writing offers improved processing of CNTs-polymer composites. The shear-induced flow of an engineered nanocomposite ink through the micronozzle offers some benefits including reducing the number of voids within the epoxy, improving CNTs dispersion and adhesion with epoxy, and partially aligns the CNTs. Such microstructural changes result in superior mechanical performance and heat transfer in the composites compared to their mold-casted counterparts. This work demonstrates the advantages of 3D printing over traditional fabrication methods, beyond the ability to rapidly fabricate complex architectures, to achieve improved processing dynamics for fabricating CNT-polymer nanocomposites with better structural and functional properties.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) can be assembled into various macroscopic architectures, most notably continuous fibers and films, produced currently on a kilometer per day scale by floating catalyst chemical vapor depositionand spinning from an aerogel of CNTs. An attractive challenge is to produce continuous fibers with controlled molecular structure with respect to the diameter, chiral angle and ultimately(n,m)indices of the constituent SWCNT molecules. This work presents an extensive Raman spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy study of SWCNT aerogels produced by the direct spinning method. By retaining the open structure of the SWCNT aerogel, we reveal the presence of both semiconducting and metallic SWCNTs and determine a full distribution of families of SWCNT grouped by optical transitions. The resulting distribution matches the chiral angle distribution obtained by electron microscopy and electron diffraction. The effect of SWCNT bundling on the Raman spectra, such as the G line shape due to plasmons activated in the far-infrared and semiconductor quenching, are also discussed. By avoiding full aggregation of the aerogel and applying the methodology introduced, rapid screening of molecular features can be achieved in large samples, making this protocol a useful analysis tool for engineered SWCNT fibers and related systems.
We have measured the dynamic alignment properties of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) suspensions in pulsed high magnetic fields through linear dichroism spectroscopy. Millisecond-duration pulsed high magnetic fields up to 56 T as well as microsecond-duration pulsed ultrahigh magnetic fields up to 166 T were used. Due to their anisotropic magnetic properties, SWNTs align in an applied magnetic field, and because of their anisotropic optical properties, aligned SWNTs show linear dichroism. The characteristics of their overall alignment depend on several factors, including the viscosity and temperature of the suspending solvent, the degree of anisotropy of nanotube magnetic susceptibilities, the nanotube length distribution, the degree of nanotube bundling, and the strength and duration of the applied magnetic field. In order to explain our data, we have developed a theoretical model based on the Smoluchowski equation for rigid rods that accurately reproduces the salient features of the experimental data.
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) of sufficiently large diameter and a few layers self-collapse into flat ribbons at atmospheric pressure, forming bundles of stacked CNTs that maximize packing and thus CNT interaction. Their improved stress transfer by shear makes collapsed CNTs ideal building blocks in macroscopic fibers of CNTs with high-performance longitudinal properties, particularly high tensile properties as reinforcing fibres. This work introduces cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy of FIB-milled samples as a way to univocally identify collapsed CNTs and to determine the full population of different CNTs in macroscopic fibers produced by spinning from floating catalyst chemical vapour deposition. We show that close proximity in bundles is a major driver for collapse and that CNT stoutness (number of layers/diameter), which dominates the collapse onset, is controlled by the growth promotor. Despite differences in decomposition route, different C precursors lead to similar distributions of the ratio layers/diameter. The synthesis conditions in this study give a maximum fraction of collapsed CNTs of 70$%$ when using selenium as promotor, corresponding to an average of $0.25 layer/nm$.
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