Macroscopic nanotube fibers spun from single-walled carbon nanotube polyelectrolytes

Chengmin Jiang; Avishek Saha; Colin C Young; Daniel Paul Hashim; Carolyn E Ramirez; Pulickel M Ajayan; Matteo Pasquali; Angel A Martí

doi:10.1021/nn502552q

Macroscopic nanotube fibers spun from single-walled carbon nanotube polyelectrolytes

ACS Nano. 2014 Sep 23;8(9):9107-12. doi: 10.1021/nn502552q. Epub 2014 Aug 27.

Authors

Chengmin Jiang¹, Avishek Saha, Colin C Young, Daniel Paul Hashim, Carolyn E Ramirez, Pulickel M Ajayan, Matteo Pasquali, Angel A Martí

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, ‡Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, §Applied Physics Program, ⊥Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, ∥Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, and ⊗Department of Bioengineering, Rice University , Houston, Texas 77005, United States.

PMID: 25162378
DOI: 10.1021/nn502552q

Abstract

In this work, single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) fibers were produced from SWCNT polyelectrolyte dispersions stabilized by crown ether in dimethyl sulfoxide and coagulated into aqueous solutions. The SWCNT polyelectrolyte dispersions had concentrations up to 52 mg/mL and showed liquid crystalline behavior under polarized optical microscopy. The produced SWCNT fibers are neat (i.e., not forming composites with polymers) and showed a tensile strength up to 124 MPa and a Young's modulus of 14 GPa. This tensile strength is comparable to those of SWCNT fibers spun from strong acids. Conductivities on the order of 10(4) S/m were obtained by doping the fibers with iodine.

Keywords: SWCNTs; crown ethers; fibers; liquid crystals; polyelectrolytes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't