Soft, Highly Conductive Nanotube Sponges and Composites with Controlled Compressibility
- 1 April 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in ACS Nano
- Vol. 4 (4), 2320-2326
- https://doi.org/10.1021/nn100114d
Abstract
Porous carbon nanotube networks represent a type of material that can achieve both structural robustness and high flexibility. We demonstrate here controlled synthesis of soft to hard sponges with densities ranging from 5 to 25 mg/cm3, while retaining a porosity of >99%. The stable sponge-like structure allows excellent compressibility tunable up to 90% volume shrinkage, and the ability to recover most of volume by free expansion. Electrical resistivity of the sponges changes linearly and reversibly after 300 cycles of large-strain compression. Nanotubes forming the three-dimensional scaffold maintain good contact and percolation during large-strain deformation, polymer infiltration, and cross-linking process, suggesting potential applications as strain sensors and conductive nanocomposites.Keywords
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