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US 2007/0176319 A1Published application
Aligned carbon nanotube composite ribbons and their production
AssigneeUniversity of Delaware
InventorsErik Thostenson, Tsu-Wei Chou
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Abstract
Carbon nanotubes can be uniformly dispersed in a polymer and subsequently fabricated in macroscopic nanotube/polymer ribbons having nanotubes aligned in a primary direction. The technique is readily scalable and could be applied to the fabrication of larger-scale structural/functional materials and devices.
Claims19
A method for producing nanocomposites, comprising:
- providing a mixture of polymer and nanotubes;
- shear mixing the mixture in an extruder to disperse the nanotubes within the polymer;
- extruding the mixture from the extruder;
- and
- drawing the mixture prior to solidification of the mixture.
2 more elements
A nanocomposite, comprising:
- a plurality of nanotubes dispersed in a polymer matrix, wherein the nanotubes are mechanically aligned in a principal direction to a standard deviation from the principal direction of less than ±15°.
A method for producing nanocomposites, comprising:
- providing a mixture of polymer and nanotubes, wherein the nanotubes are selected according to their diameters;
- shear mixing the mixture to disperse the nanotubes within the polymer;
- extruding the mixture from the extruder;
- and
- drawing the mixture prior to solidification of the mixture to form a nanocomposite, wherein the distribution of nanotube diameters is selected according to a desired stiffness of the nanocomposite.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.