Dielectrophoresis can control the density of CNT membranes as confirmed by experiment and dissipative particle simulation

Abstract

In forests and membranes, Carbon nano tubes (CNT) are not individual, instead they tend to be agglomerated into bundles because of the strong van der Waals interaction. CNTs usually form into bundles containing up to hundreds or thousands of parallel CNTs named as fibres which create networks within a CNT membrane. Recently, CNT based macrostructures (yarn and membrane) have increasingly been used in various applications in electronics, medical and bioengineering. Meanwhile the volume density of CNTs impacts on mechanical and physical properties of macrostructures, the controlling of the density of membranes is very complex. Thus, in this paper, an electric processing to dilate CNT membrane is sufficiently studied and investigated by both the experiment and particle based numerical simulation. Several initially potential applications of the method are also represented not only to control the density of CNTs but also to improve the CNTs’ alignment in macro-structures.