Morphology and processing of aligned carbon nanotube carbon matrix nanocomposites
Name
Carbon-2014-Stein.pdf
Description
Main article and Supporting Information
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2.33 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
60561e16cb3ddf5466ea732037129347
Author(s)
Stein, Itai Y
Wardle, Brian L
Date Issued
December 2013
Journal
Carbon
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Stein, Itai Y., and Brian L. Wardle. “Morphology and Processing of Aligned Carbon Nanotube Carbon Matrix Nanocomposites.” Carbon 68 (2014): 807–813.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Intrinsic and scale-dependent properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have led aligned CNT architectures to emerge as promising candidates for next-generation multifunctional applications. Enhanced operating regimes motivate the study of CNT-based aligned nanofiber carbon matrix nanocomposites (CNT A-CMNCs). However, in order to tailor the material properties of CNT A-CMNCs, porosity control of the carbon matrix is required. Such control is usually achieved via multiple liquid precursor infusions and pyrolyzations. Here we report a model that allows the quantitative prediction of the CNT A-CMNC density and matrix porosity as a function of number of processing steps. The experimental results indicate that the matrix porosity of A-CMNCs comprised of ∼1% aligned CNTs decreased from ∼61% to ∼55% after a second polymer infusion and pyrolyzation. The model predicts that diminishing returns for porosity reduction will occur after 4 processing steps (matrix porosity of ∼51%), and that >10 processing steps are required for matrix porosity <50%. Using this model, prediction of the processing necessary for the fabrication of liquid precursor derived A-CMNC architectures, with possible application to other nanowire/nanofiber systems, is enabled for a variety of high value applications.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2013.12.001
