Fabrication and application of nanofiber ribbons and sheets and twisted and non-twisted nanofiber yarns
AssigneeBoard of Regents, The University of Texas System
InventorsMei Zhang, Shaoli Fang, Ray H. Baughman, Anvar A. Zakhidov, Kenneth Ross Atkinson, Ali E. Aliev, Sergey Li, Chris Williams
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process of producing a yarn, ribbon or sheet that includes nanofibers in which the process includes forming a yarn, ribbon or sheet comprising nanofibers, and applying an enhancing agent comprising a polymer to the yarn, ribbon or sheet.
Claims18
A process of producing a composite yarn, ribbon or sheet comprising nanofibers, the process comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a yarn, ribbon or sheet comprising nanofibers by drawing the yarn, ribbon or sheet from a nanofiber forest;
- and
- (b) applying an enhancing agent to the yarn, ribbon or sheet to form a composite yarn, ribbon or sheet, the enhancing agent is selected from a group consisting of friction aids, electrolytes, binding agents, species that enhance thermal conductivity of the yarn, ribbon or sheet, species that enhance electrical conductivity of the yarn, ribbon or sheet, and combinations thereof.
A process of producing a composite nanofiber yarn, ribbon or sheet comprising nanofibers, the process comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a yarn, ribbon or sheet comprising nanofibers by drawing the yarn, ribbon or sheet from a nanofiber forest;
- and
- (b) applying an electrically conducting material to (i) the nanofiber forest or (ii) the yarn, ribbon or sheet drawn from the nanofiber forest to form a composite yarn, ribbon or sheet, wherein the electrically conducting material is selected from the group consisting of conducting polymers, metals, metal alloys and combinations thereof.
A process of producing a nanofiber yarn, the process comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a pre-primary assembly, wherein the pre-primary assembly comprises a substantially parallel array of nanofibers;
- (b) drawing from the pre-primary assembly to provide a primary assembly of the nanofibers having an alignment axis about which twisting can occur, wherein the primary assembly is selected from the group consisting of (i) an aligned array and (ii) an array that is converging toward alignment about the alignment axis;
- (c) twisting about the alignment axis of said primary assembly to produce a twisted yarn;
- and
- (d) applying an additive, wherein the additive is selected from the group consisting of a friction aid, electrolyte, binding agent, a species that enhances yarn thermal conductivity, a species that enhances yarn electrical conductivity, or combinations thereof and the additive is applied to the twisted yarn.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.