Self-assembly of 3D Carbon Nanotube Sponges: A Simple and Controllable Way to Build Macroscopic and Ultralight Porous Architectures

Shu Luo; Yufeng Luo; Hengcai Wu; Mengya Li; Lingjia Yan; Kaili Jiang; Liang Liu; Qunqing Li; Shoushan Fan; Jiaping Wang

doi:10.1002/adma.201603549

Self-assembly of 3D Carbon Nanotube Sponges: A Simple and Controllable Way to Build Macroscopic and Ultralight Porous Architectures

Adv Mater. 2017 Jan;29(1). doi: 10.1002/adma.201603549. Epub 2016 Nov 2.

Authors

Shu Luo¹, Yufeng Luo¹, Hengcai Wu², Mengya Li², Lingjia Yan², Kaili Jiang², Liang Liu², Qunqing Li², Shoushan Fan¹, Jiaping Wang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
² Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.

PMID: 27805759
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201603549

Abstract

Macroscopic and 3D superaligned CNT (SACNT) sponges are fabricated through a simple, low-cost, controllable, and scalable self-assembly method without using organic binder. Sponges with specific shapes and densities can be achieved. SACNT sponges are ultralight (1-50 mg cm^-3 ), highly porous (97.5%-99.9%) with honeycomb-like hierarchical structure, and highly conductive. Using SACNT sponges as templates, various materials with honeycomb-like structure can be obtained for wide applications.

Keywords: 3D; macroscopic; self-assembly; sponges; superaligned carbon nanotubes.