Non-damaging and scalable carbon nanotube synthesis on carbon fibres

The growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on carbon fibres (CFs) to produce a hierarchical fibre with two differing reinforcement length scales, in this instance nanometre and micrometre respectively, is considered a route to improve current state-of-the-art fibre reinforced composites [1]. The scalable production of carbon nanotube-grafted-carbon fibres (CNT-g-CFs) has been limited due to high temperatures, the use of flammable gases and the requirement of inert conditions for CNT synthesis, whist (ideally) maintaining underlying original substrate mechanical properties. Here, the continuous production of CNT-g-CF is demonstrated in an open chemical vapour deposition (CVD) reactor, crucially, whilst retaining the tensile properties of the carbon fibres. As synthesised CNTs have a diameter of sub 20 nm and length ca. 120 nm, which are predicted to provide ideal fibre reinforcement in composites by retaining optimal composite fibre volume fraction (60%), whilst improving interfacial bonding of the matrix and reinforcement [1, 2]. Mild processing techniques enable this modified CVD process to be fully compatible with industrial practices, and have the potential to generate large volumes of hierarchical CNT-g-CF material.