Elsevier

Polymer

Volume 49, Issue 18, 26 August 2008, Pages 3841-3854
Polymer

Feature article
Polymers with aligned carbon nanotubes: Active composite materials

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2008.05.005Get rights and content
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open access

Abstract

We review the current state of the polymer–carbon nanotube composites field. The article first covers key points in dispersion and stabilization of nanotubes in a polymer matrix, with particular attention paid to ultrasonic cavitation and shear mixing. We then focus on the emerging trends in nanocomposite actuators, in particular, photo-stimulated mechanical response. The magnitude and even the direction of this actuation critically depend on the degree of tube alignment in the matrix; in this context, we discuss the affine model predicting the upper bound of orientational order of nanotubes, induced by an imposed strain. We review how photo-actuation in nanocomposites depend on nanotube concentration, alignment and entanglement, and examine possible mechanisms that could lead to this effect. Finally, we discuss properties of pure carbon nanotube networks, in form of mats or fibers. These systems have no polymer matrix, yet demonstrate pronounced viscoelasticity and also the same photomechanical actuation as seen in polymer-based composites.

Keywords

Carbon nanotubes
Composites
Actuation

Cited by (0)

Samit Ahir is a Group Executive for the Makevale Group where, amongst other roles, he currently oversees commercial nanocomposite research and development. He received MEng in Material Science from Imperial College London in 2003, and PhD in Experimental Physics from Cambridge University in 2006. He has worked in UK and USA, as well as founded a charity and dance company in 2005. He is a FreshMinds Ones to Watch™’s selected mind.

Yan Yan Huang received her MEng in Material Science from Imperial College London in 2007, and is currently a PhD candidate in Department of Physics (Cavendish Laboratory) in Cambridge. Her research interests include stabilization of carbon nanotubes in elastomeric matrices and dielectric properties of CNT–polymer composites, and their applications in material science and electronic engineering.

Eugene Terentjev is a Professor of Polymer Physics at University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in 1985 in Moscow for theoretical research in liquid crystals, and did postdoctoral work on modeling l.c. polymers in CWRU, Ohio. After moving to Cambridge University in 1992, he worked extensively on theory and experiment in liquid crystalline elastomers, and is a coauthor (with Mark Warner) of the monograph on this subject. He is interested in a wide range of problems in soft-matter and biological physics, developing theories and supervising the experimental laboratory researching structure, optical and mechanical properties, and rheology of complex materials.