Abstract
Carbon nanotubes have excellent electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties as determined theoretically and experimentally. Their properties make them great candidates for use in a number of applications ranging from lightning strike protection for airplanes to computer heat sink. However, carbon nanotubes are incredibly small, with diameters as small as 1nm and just a few micrometers long. The nanoscale size makes carbon nanotubes impractical to be used individually for many industrial purposes, thus methods have been developed to fabricate macroscale networks of carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube networks, also called Buckypaper, have showed mechanical, thermal and electrical properties inferior to those of individual nanotubes. Extensive work has been conducted to develop and optimize suitable production methods of producing high quality Buckypaper and enhance their properties. Many approaches are capable of producing a carbon nanotube network, but most are not able to scale up for industrial applications due to size and production rate limitations.
This research focuses on two aspects of Buckypaper manufacturing improvements. The first is to test 90 mm samples of Buckypaper disks to determine the impact of each processing parameter on the quality and properties. Statistic analysis was used to reveal the effect of processing parameters. Utilizing these results, a long sample of Buckypaper was produced and examined for property and quality consistency along the sample length, using modified customer-made continuous filter devices. Additionally, long samples with larger width were produced to demonstrate production rate of continuous Buckypaper manufacturing.
Through this research it was found that the electrical conductivity of the Buckypaper was affected positively by an increase in sonication pressure. Additionally, increases in pressure and increase in power of sonication led to an increase of Buckypaper strength. Strength and electrical properties of the continuous Buckypaper were considered consistent throughout the length. These results provide essential understanding of the continuous Buckypaper manufacturing process.
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