High density mechanical energy storage with carbon nanothread bundle

Haifei Zhan; Gang Zhang; John M Bell; Vincent B C Tan; Yuantong Gu

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15807-7

High density mechanical energy storage with carbon nanothread bundle

Nat Commun. 2020 Apr 20;11(1):1905. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15807-7.

Authors

Haifei Zhan^{1

2}, Gang Zhang³, John M Bell⁴, Vincent B C Tan⁵, Yuantong Gu^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia.
² Center for Materials Science, Queensland University of Technology (QLD), Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia.
³ Institute of High Performance Computing, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, 1 Fusionopolis Way, Singapore, 138632, Singapore. zhangg@ihpc.a-star.edu.sg.
⁴ University of Southern Queensland, Springfield Central, QLD, 4300, Australia.
⁵ Deparment of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore, 11576, Singapore.
⁶ School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia. yuantong.gu@qut.edu.au.
⁷ Center for Materials Science, Queensland University of Technology (QLD), Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia. yuantong.gu@qut.edu.au.

Abstract

The excellent mechanical properties of carbon nanofibers bring promise for energy-related applications. Through in silico studies and continuum elasticity theory, here we show that the ultra-thin carbon nanothreads-based bundles exhibit a high mechanical energy storage density. Specifically, the gravimetric energy density is found to decrease with the number of filaments, with torsion and tension as the two dominant contributors. Due to the coupled stresses, the nanothread bundle experiences fracture before reaching the elastic limit of any individual deformation mode. Our results show that nanothread bundles have similar mechanical energy storage capacity compared to (10,10) carbon nanotube bundles, but possess their own advantages. For instance, the structure of the nanothread allows us to realize the full mechanical energy storage potential of its bundle structure through pure tension, with a gravimetric energy density of up to 1.76 MJ kg^-1, which makes them appealing alternative building blocks for energy storage devices.