Alignment of carbon nanotubes using magnetic particles

A method for making a composite material comprising aligned carbon nanotubes, the method comprising:

• chemically activating adsorption sites on a plurality of carbon nanotubes;
• adsorbing magnetic nanoparticles to the carbon nanotubes to form a magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite;
• dispersing the magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite in a fluid matrix material to form a fluid mixture;
• placing the fluid mixture between magnets to expose the mixture to a magnetic field effective to align the nanotubes in the fluid mixture;
• and
• solidifying the fluid matrix material to form a nanotube/matrix material composite comprising the aligned nanotubes which remain dispersed and aligned in the absence of said magnetic field.

A method for aligning carbon nanotubes, the method comprising:

• adding magnetic nanoparticles to the carbon nanotubes dispersed in a nonsolvent liquid medium to form a dispersion of magnetic nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes;
• adsorbing clusters of the magnetic nanoparticles directly to discrete portions of the carbon nanotubes dispersed in the nonsolvent liquid medium to form a magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite in the nonsolvent liquid medium;
• and
• exposing the magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite in the nonsolvent liquid medium to a magnetic field effective to align the nanotubes of the magnetic particle-carbon nanotube composite in the nonsolvent liquid medium.