The Materials Science and Engineering Program invites you to join us in ETRL 101 today, October 6 at 12:10 p.m. as Mitch Rock (MSEP Ph.D. candidate) presents his seminar on “Shear-aligned carbon nanotube mats”.
Abstract:
As composite structures become more highly used across various industries, companies are looking for economically viable ways to increase their performance. To meet this demand, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been heavily researched due to their unique electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Researchers have been developing ways, such as creating free-standing CNT mats through filtration of a CNT solution, to incorporate high loadings of CNTs into composites to utilize these properties.
An advantage of fiber reinforced polymer composites is the ability to change the fiber orientation to tailor the properties in certain directions. Due to their nanoscale dimensions, creating aligned CNT mats requires unique methods, including: mechanical stretching, magnetic alignment, and domino pushing. Unfortunately, these methods typically require specialized equipment or substrates, making them difficult for industrial use.
In our work, we have modified the typical CNT filtration step by creating a specialized apparatus to simultaneously shear and filter the solution. An anionic surfactant, CTAB, is added to increase the solution viscosity and promote shear alignment. The rheological properties of these CNT-CTAB solutions are characterized using both linear and oscillatory rheology to further understand the mechanism of shear alignment and determine optimal conditions to use in the shear alignment apparatus.
