Soft, highly conductive nanotube sponges and composites with controlled compressibility.
Porous carbon nanotube networks represent a type of material that can achieve both structural robustness and high flexibility. We demonstrate here controlled synthesis of soft to hard sponges with densities ranging from 5 to 25 mg/cm(3), while retaining a porosity of >99%. The stable sponge-like structure allows excellent compressibility tunable up to 90% volume shrinkage, and the ability to recover most of volume by free expansion. Electrical resistivity of the sponges changes linearly and reversibly after 300 cycles of large-strain compression. Nanotubes forming the three-dimensional scaffold maintain good contact and percolation during large-strain deformation, polymer infiltration, and cross-linking process, suggesting potential applications as strain sensors and conductive nanocomposites.
Gui
Xuchun
X
Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China.
Cao
Anyuan
A
Wei
Jinquan
J
Li
Hongbian
H
Jia
Yi
Y
Li
Zhen
Z
Fan
Lili
L
Wang
Kunlin
K
Zhu
Hongwei
H
Wu
Dehai
D
D004553:Electric Conductivity; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon