title: Three-dimensional Sponges with Super Mechanical Stability: Harnessing True Elasticity of Individual Carbon Nanotubes in Macroscopic Architectures.
abstract: Efficient assembly of carbon nanotube (CNT) based cellular solids with appropriate structure is the key to fully realize the potential of individual nanotubes in macroscopic architecture. In this work, the macroscopic CNT sponge consisting of randomly interconnected individual carbon nanotubes was grown by CVD, exhibiting a combination of super-elasticity, high strength to weight ratio, fatigue resistance, thermo-mechanical stability and electro-mechanical stability. To deeply understand such extraordinary mechanical performance compared to that of conventional cellular materials and other nanostructured cellular architectures, a thorough study on the response of this CNT-based spongy structure to compression is conducted based on classic elastic theory. The strong inter-tube bonding between neighboring nanotubes is examined, believed to play a critical role in the reversible deformation such as bending and buckling without structural collapse under compression. Based on in-situ scanning electron microscopy observation and nanotube deformation analysis, structural evolution (completely elastic bending-buckling transition) of the carbon nanotubes sponges to deformation is proposed to clarify their mechanical properties and nonlinear electromechanical coupling behavior.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierachical Fabrication, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.|State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Zhaohe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierachical Fabrication, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Luqi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierachical Fabrication, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierachical Fabrication, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yueguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics (CNMM), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierachical Fabrication, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.|Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics (CNMM), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.|CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China.
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang