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Microwave Makes Carbon Nanotubes Less Defective

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posted on 2010-03-23, 00:00 authored by Wei Lin, Kyoung-Sik Moon, Shanju Zhang, Yong Ding, Jintang Shang, Mingxiang Chen, Ching-ping Wong
An ultrafast microwave annealing process has been developed to reduce the defect density in vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Raman and thermogravimetric analyses have shown a distinct defect reduction in the CNTs annealed in microwave for 3 min. Fibers spun from the as-annealed CNTs, in comparison with those from the pristine CNTs, show increases of ∼35% and ∼65%, respectively, in tensile strength (∼0.8 GPa) and modulus (∼90 GPa) during tensile testing; an ∼20% improvement in electrical conductivity (∼80000 S m−1) was also reported. The mechanism of the microwave response of CNTs was discussed.

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