title: Capillarity-driven assembly of two-dimensional cellular carbon nanotube foams.
abstract: Capillary forces arising during the evaporation of liquids from dense carbon nanotube arrays are used to reassemble the nanotubes into two-dimensional contiguous cellular foams. The stable nanotube foams can be elastically deformed, transferred to other substrates, or floated out to produce free-standing macroscopic fabrics. The lightweight cellular foams made of condensed nanotubes could have applications as shock-absorbent structural reinforcements and elastic membranes. The ability to control the length scale, orientation, and shape of the cellular structures and the simplicity of the assembly process make this a particularly attractive system for studying pattern formation in ordered media.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MRC 142, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA.
authors.forename: Nirupama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chakrapani
authors.forename: Bingqing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carrillo
authors.forename: Pulickel M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Ajayan
authors.forename: Ravi S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kane
mesh_terms: D008420:Manufactured Materials; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon