Acta Chimica Sinica ›› 2012, Vol. 70 ›› Issue (14): 1523-1532.DOI: 10.6023/A12030024 Previous Articles     Next Articles

Full Papers

取向碳纳米管/高分子新型复合材料的制备及应用

丘龙斌, 孙雪梅, 仰志斌, 郭文瀚, 彭慧胜   

  1. 复旦大学聚合物分子工程国家重点实验室 高分子科学系 先进材料实验室 上海 200438
  • 投稿日期:2012-03-20 发布日期:2012-04-17
  • 通讯作者: 彭慧胜 E-mail:penghs@fudan.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:

    项目受国家自然科学基金(Nos. 20904006, 91027025);科技部(Nos. 2011CB932503, 2011DFA51330);教育部(NCET-09-0318)以及上海市科委(Nos. 1052nm01600, 11520701400)资助.

Preparation and Application of Aligned Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Composite Material

Qiu Longbin, Sun Xuemei, Yang Zhibin, Guo Wenhan, Peng Huisheng   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438
  • Received:2012-03-20 Published:2012-04-17
  • Supported by:

    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 20904006, 91027025), Ministry of Science and Technology (Nos. 2011CB932503, 2011DFA51330), Ministry of Education (No. NCET-09-0318), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Nos. 1052nm01600, 11520701400).

Carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer composite materials have been widely studied for two decades. However, there remains a common and critical challenge, i.e., random dispersion of CNTs in polymer matrices, which has largely lowered their properties and limited their applications. Herein, we have developed a general method to prepare highly aligned CNT/polymer composite materials in formats of array, film, and fiber. The key procedure is to synthesize spinnable CNT arrays with high quality by a chemical vapor deposition process. Fe/Al2O3 was used as catalyst, ethylene was used as carbon source, a mixture gas of argon and hydrogen was used as carrying gas. The optimal growth conditions were summarized as below: thickness of 1.2 nm for Fe, thickness of 3 nm for Al2O3, flow rate of 400 standard cm3/min for argon, flow rate of 90 standard cm3/min for ethylene, flow rate of 30 standard cm3/min for hydrogen, growth temperature of 740℃, and growth time of 10 min. Here the catalyst system was coated on silicon substrate by electron beam evaporation with rates of 0.5 and 2 ?/s for Fe and Al2O3, respectively. To prepare CNT sheets or fibers, the spinnable array was first stabilized in a stage. A blade was then used to draw a ribbon out of the array. A CNT sheet would be obtained if the ribbon was directly pulled out without rotation, while a fiber should be produced if a rotary spinning was used. The spinning speed was about 15 cm/min. Monomer/polymer solutions or melts were directly coated onto the aligned CNT sheet or fiber to produce the aligned CNT/polymer film or fiber. Due to the high alignment of CNTs in polymer matrices, the resulting composite materials exhibited remarkable physical properties, e.g., the mechanical strength and electrical conductivity can be improved for one and three orders compared with the conventional solution blending method, respectively. These novel composite materials are promising for a wide variety of applications. The use of them as novel counter electrodes to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cells has been investigated as a demonstration. In a typical fabrication, an aligned CNT/polymer film (typical thickness of 5 mm) was first transferred onto fluorine doped tin oxide as counter electrode. A layer of TiO2 was coated onto fluorine doped tin oxide as working electrode, followed by immersion into 0.5 mmol/L cis-diisothiocyanato-bis(2,2'-bipyridyl-4,4'-dicarboxylato) ruthenium(II) bis(tetrabutylammonium) (also called N719) solution in a mixture solvent of acetonitrile/tert-butanol (volume ratio of 1/1) for 16 h. After being further rinsed with acetonitrile and dried, the N719-incorporated TiO2 electrode was assembled with the counter electrode. An electrolyte which consisted of LiI, I2, 2-2-3-with propyl methyl 5-membered imidazole iodine, GuSCN, and tri-butyl-phosphate in dehydrated acetonitrile was injected into the cell through a hole on the counter electrode. The hole was finally sealed with surlyn and a piece of glass.

Key words: aligned, carbon nanotube, polymer, composite material