Formation of highly conductive composite coatings and their applications to broadband antennas and mechanical transducer
- PDF / 1,026,157 Bytes
- 7 Pages / 584.957 x 782.986 pts Page_size
- 85 Downloads / 186 Views
Jamal A. Talla Department of Physics, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Soniya D. Yambem Institute for NanoEnergy, Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004
Donald Birx Office for the Vice Chancellor of Research, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004
Guo Chen Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004
Faith Coldren and David L. Carroll Department of Physics, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109
Lijie Ci and Pulickel M. Ajayan Department of Materials Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005
Donghui Zhang Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Seamus A. Curran Institute for NanoEnergy, Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004 (Received 7 January 2010; accepted 20 May 2010)
Tight networks of interwoven carbon nanotube bundles are formed in our highly conductive composite. The composite possesses properties suggesting a two-dimensional percolative network rather than other reported dispersions displaying three-dimensional networks. Binding nanotubes into large but tight bundles dramatically alters the morphology and electronic transport dynamics of the composite. This enables it to carry higher levels of charge in the macroscale leading to conductivities as high as 1600 S/cm. We now discuss in further detail, the electronic and physical properties of the nanotube composites through Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy analysis. When controlled and used appropriately, the interesting properties of these composites reveal their potential for practical device applications. For instance, we used this composite to fabricate coatings, which improve the properties of an electromagnetic antenna/amplifier transducer. The resulting transducer possesses a broadband range up to GHz frequencies. A strain gauge transducer was also fabricated using changes in conductivity to monitor structural deformations in the composite coatings.
I. INTRODUCTION
Due to their unique properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used in many applications. These include filler materials for polymer composites,1 field emitters,2 sensors,3 and optoelectronic nanodevices.4 Considering energy generation and storage, carbon nanotubes show great promise in supercapacitors,5 Li-ion batteries,6 and to some degree in solar cells.7 This is a consequence of their distinctive electronic properties, electrochemical a)
Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/JMR.2010.0221 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 25, No. 9, Sep 2010
http://journals.cambridge.org
Downloaded: 16 Mar 2015
stability, and large surface area. While the cost of nanotubes for these applications is prohibitive, the electronic properties of composites would suggest that they may be used in small quantities for application in sensors and protective barrier coatings. Kang et al.8 fabricated piezoresistive strain sensors for structural health monito
Data Loading...
