Mechanical properties of carbon nanotube paper in ionic liquid and aqueous electrolytes

Porous mats of carbon nanotubes, referred to as bucky paper, are becoming a viable engineering material, especially as electrodes in numerous types of electrochemical cells. The tensile strength of bucky paper was measured in the dry atmospheric condition, and the wet conditions of both water and 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate, an ionic liquid. The two different liquids have a significant impact on the mechanical properties of bucky paper, even when they are not known for readily wetting the nanotubes. It is shown that capillary forces contribute to the mechanical properties of bucky paper. It is also shown that there is a strong interaction between ionic liquid and carbon nanotubes.

[1]  Ray H. Baughman,et al.  Investigation of ionic liquids as electrolytes for carbon nanotube electrodes , 2004 .

[2]  P. Ajayan,et al.  Molecular junctions by joining single-walled carbon nanotubes. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[3]  Ann Marie Sastry,et al.  Mechanical properties of nanotube sheets: Alterations in joint morphology and achievable moduli in manufacturable materials , 2004 .

[4]  A. Bond,et al.  Conditions required to achieve the apparent equivalence of adhered solid- and solution-phase voltammetry for ferrocene and other redox-active solids in ionic liquids. , 2003, Analytical chemistry.

[5]  P. A. Hartley,et al.  The relevance of powder/liquid wettability to the cohesiveness of carbon black agglomerates , 1986 .

[6]  A. M. Rao,et al.  Large-scale purification of single-wall carbon nanotubes: process, product, and characterization , 1998 .

[7]  L. Kavan,et al.  Ionic liquid for in situ Vis/NIR and Raman spectroelectrochemistry: Doping of carbon nanostructures. , 2003, Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry.

[8]  P. Guigon,et al.  Experimental determination of capillary forces by crushing strength measurements , 2003 .

[9]  Howard Wang,et al.  Dispersing Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Surfactants: A Small Angle Neutron Scattering Study , 2004 .

[10]  A. Rinzler,et al.  Carbon nanotube actuators , 1999, Science.

[11]  P. Ajayan,et al.  Carbon nanotube filters , 2004, Nature materials.

[12]  Satish Kumar,et al.  Properties and Structure of Nitric Acid Oxidized Single Wall Carbon Nanotube Films , 2004 .

[13]  Sandra Einloft,et al.  Enlarged electrochemical window in dialkyl-imidazolium cation based room-temperature air and water-stable molten salts , 1997 .

[14]  M. Itkis,et al.  Determination of the acidic sites of purified single-walled carbon nanotubes by acid–base titration , 2001 .

[15]  A. H. Nissan,et al.  Unified theory of the mechanical properties of paper and other H-bond-dominated solids. III , 1987 .

[16]  Joselito M. Razal,et al.  Improving the mechanical properties of single-walled carbon nanotube sheets by intercalation of polymeric adhesives , 2003 .

[17]  M. Sanjuán,et al.  Porosity, Surface Area, Surface Energy, and Hydrogen Adsorption in Nanostructured Carbons , 2004 .

[18]  New, Stable, Ambient-Temperature Molten Salts , 1992 .

[19]  A. H. Nissan,et al.  The link between the molecular and structural theories of paper elasticity , 1997 .

[20]  Martin Hulman,et al.  Effect Of Gamma‐Irradiation on Single‐Wall Carbon Nanotube Paper , 2003 .

[21]  D. Mcqueen,et al.  A model of the dynamic mechanical responses of wood, paper and some polymers to moisture changes , 1998 .

[22]  Ying Liu,et al.  Electrochemical and bioelectrochemistry properties of room-temperature ionic liquids and carbon composite materials. , 2004, Analytical chemistry.

[23]  P. Poncharal,et al.  Water-vapor effect on the electrical conductivity of a single-walled carbon nanotube mat , 2000 .

[24]  D. A. Dougherty,et al.  The Cationminus signpi Interaction. , 1997, Chemical reviews.

[25]  L. Mao,et al.  Novel electrochemical method for sensitive determination of homocysteine with carbon nanotube-based electrodes. , 2004, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[26]  H. Haslachjr,et al.  The moisture and rate-dependent mechanical properties of paper: a review , 2000 .

[27]  Ray H. Baughman,et al.  Electrochemical studies of single-wall carbon nanotubes in aqueous solutions , 2000 .

[28]  B. J. Ennis,et al.  Nucleation, growth and breakage phenomena in agitated wet granulation processes: a review , 2001 .

[29]  Wen Xu,et al.  Fabrication and electrochemical properties of carbon nanotube array electrode for supercapacitors , 2004 .

[30]  M. Kakihana,et al.  Materials Research Society Symposium - Proceedings , 2000 .

[31]  Takuzo Aida,et al.  Molecular Ordering of Organic Molten Salts Triggered by Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes , 2003, Science.