title: Bio-Inspired Aggregation Control of Carbon Nanotubes for Ultra-Strong Composites.
abstract: High performance nanocomposites require well dispersion and high alignment of the nanometer-sized components, at a high mass or volume fraction as well. However, the road towards such composite structure is severely hindered due to the easy aggregation of these nanometer-sized components. Here we demonstrate a big step to approach the ideal composite structure for carbon nanotube (CNT) where all the CNTs were highly packed, aligned, and unaggregated, with the impregnated polymers acting as interfacial adhesions and mortars to build up the composite structure. The strategy was based on a bio-inspired aggregation control to limit the CNT aggregation to be sub 20-50 nm, a dimension determined by the CNT growth. After being stretched with full structural relaxation in a multi-step way, the CNT/polymer (bismaleimide) composite yielded super-high tensile strengths up to 6.27-6.94 GPa, more than 100% higher than those of carbon fiber/epoxy composites, and toughnesses up to 117-192 MPa. We anticipate that the present study can be generalized for developing multifunctional and smart nanocomposites where all the surfaces of nanometer-sized components can take part in shear transfer of mechanical, thermal, and electrical signals.
authors.affiliation: 1] Laboratory of Advanced Polymeric Materials, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road 19, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Nano-Devices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruoshui Road 398, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Nano-Devices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruoshui Road 398, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Xueping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Nano-Devices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruoshui Road 398, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Jingna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: 1] Laboratory of Advanced Polymeric Materials, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road 19, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Advanced Polymeric Materials, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Creative Nano Carbon Co. Ltd., Ruoshui Road 398, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Nano-Devices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruoshui Road 398, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Yongyi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Advanced Polymeric Materials, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun North First Street 2, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Nano-Devices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruoshui Road 398, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Qingwen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li