Strong van der Waals forces between individual carbon nanotubes pose a major hurdle for effective use of nanotubes as reinforcement in nanocomposite due to agglomeration. In this paper, the authors show that van der Waals forces in combination with functionalization of carbon nanotubes, can be utilized to design nanocomposites mimicking stiffening behavior normally observed in biological materials such as fibrin gels, health bones, actin filaments in cytoskeletons etc. Carbon nanotube spheres are used as reinforcement in an elastomer matrix and when subjected to dynamic loads exhibit significant self-stiffening. Increased stiffness is also observed in dynamic loading after every relaxation cycle. The authors further show high energy absorption of the nanocomposite in impact tests. Authors study shows that the rational design of macroscale materials from nano-scale constituents can be achieved utilizing simple methodology to produce multifunctional materials with broad applications.
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