Fibres spun from carbon nanotubes can be as electrically conductive as metal wires, yet as strong as conventional carbon fibres. Individual carbon nanotubes are strong, stiff and exceptionally conductive - but spinning them into larger filaments adds defects, impurities and misalignments that compromise the fibres' physical properties. Matteo Pasquali at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and his colleagues have improved the spinning process by adapting techniques used to make industrial fibres such as Kevlar. The authors extruded filaments from nanotubes dissolved in an acid and wound them into fibres of dense, well-aligned tubes that are stronger than copper and almost as conductive.
展开▼
