title: Highly Stretchable Conductive Fibers from Few-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Coated on Poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) Polymer Core/Shell Structures.
abstract: A core/shell stretchable conductive composite of a few-walled carbon nanotube network coated on a poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) fiber (FWNT/PMIA) was fabricated by a dip-coating method and an annealing process that greatly enhanced interactions between the FWNT network and PMIA core as well as within the FWNT network. The first strain-conductivity test of the as-prepared FWNT/PMIA fiber showed a stretching-induced alignment of nanotubes in the shell during the deformation process and a good conductivity stability with a slight conductivity drop from 109.63 S/cm to 98.74 S/cm (Δσ/σ0 = 10%) at a strain of ∼150% (2.5 times the original length). More importantly, after the first stretching process, the fiber can be recovered with a slight increase in length but a greatly improved conductivity of 167.41 S/cm through an additional annealing treatment. The recovered fiber displays a similarly superb conductivity stability against stretching, with a decrease of only ∼13 S/cm to 154.49 S/cm (Δσ/σ0 = 8%) at a strain of ∼150%. We believe that this conductivity stability came from the formation and maintaining of aligned nanotube structures during the stretching process, which ensures the good tube-tube contacts and the elongation of the FWNT network without losing its conductivity. Such stable conductivity in stretchable fibers will be important for applications in stretchable electronics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.|School of Chemistry, Biology and Materials Science, East China Institute of Technology , Nanchang 330013, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shujuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Hongbo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Biology and Materials Science, East China Institute of Technology , Nanchang 330013, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shaoqing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Yanwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Jinghua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Gyeong Hee
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Qiwei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: PMIA; core/shell structure; few-walled carbon nanotube; fibers; stretchable conductor; stretching-induced alignment