SNM: Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of High Quality Bucky-tape with Aligned and Crosslinked Carbon Nanotubes Through In-line Sensing and Control

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) demonstrate amazing properties; however, currently only a fraction of these properties can be transferred into products that can be used by engineers and consumers. To effectively transfer CNTs? properties into useful products requires a method to efficiently align and covalently interconnect the CNTs into tailored architectures at the nanoscale. This project will establish the fundamental understanding and foundation for using CNTs to make thin sheet materials, called Bucky-tapes, which can be rapidly produced in roll form and scaled-up for industrial applications. The proposed method will use a modified die-casting manufacturing process utilizing the self-repelling effects of selected flow media. In-situ ultra-violet (UV) reaction chemistry can covalently interconnect the CNTs rapidly to improve the load transfer and thermal and electronic transport properties of CNT networks. In-line multi-stage stretching of the web could orient the randomly dispersed interconnected CNT networks into specific patterns to provide greater strength and optimized transport properties. In-line Raman spectra monitoring and multistage process models will provide affordable, closed loop quality control and variation reduction methods for a high quality consistent nanomanufacturing process. A prototype will be built to demonstrate the continuous roll-to-roll process for manufacturing strong Bucky-tapes with high electrical and thermal conductivity, and low manufacturing cost. This project can transform CNT thin films networks from a lab-scale demonstration material into commercially viable products with superior properties potentially surpassing the state-of-the-art carbon fiber material. The continuous Bucky-tapes can lead to new materials applications in aerospace, electronics, energy, medicine, and transportation. For example, continuous Bucky-tape could replace metal shielding of 60 miles of cables in the Boeing 787 and reduce cable weight by 25%. The education and outreach plan will expose especially under-represented students to molecular design, nanomanufacturing process development and quality control, structure-property relationship studies. Application oriented materials-by-design and nanomanufacturing process development will motivate students into nanotechnology, manufacturing and new materials development.