Abstract
Functional materials are promising candidates for application in structural health monitoring/self-healing composites, wearable systems (smart textiles), robotics, and next-generation electronics. Any improvement in these topics would be of great relevance to industry, environment, and global needs for energy sustainability. Taking into consideration all these aspects, low-cost fabrication of electrical functionalities on the outer surface of carbon-nanotube/polypropylene composites is presented in this paper. Electrical-responsive regions and conductive tracks, made of an accumulation layer of carbon nanotubes without the use of metals, have been obtained by the laser irradiation process, leading to confined polymer melting/vaporization with consequent local increase of the nanotube concentration over the electrical percolation threshold. Interestingly, by combining different investigation methods, including thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, scanning electron and atomic force microscopies (SEM, AFM), and Raman spectroscopy, the electrical properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube/polypropylene (MWCNT/PP) composites have been elucidated to unfold their potentials under static and dynamic conditions. More interestingly, prototypes made of simple components and electronic circuits (resistor, touch-sensitive devices), where conventional components have been substituted by the carbon nanotube networks, are shown. The results contribute to enabling the direct integration of carbon conductive paths in conventional electronics and next-generation platforms for low-power electronics, sensors, and devices.
Highlights
Zero-dimensional (0D), 1D and 2D carbon structures have the potential to become materials of the generation to be used in a series of applications, ranging from neuroscience [1] to energy fields [2]
Prototypes made of simple components and electronic circuits, where conventional components have been substituted by the carbon nanotube networks, are shown
The results contribute to enabling the direct integration of carbon conductive paths in conventional electronics and next-generation platforms for low-power electronics, sensors, and devices
Summary
Zero-dimensional (0D), 1D and 2D carbon structures have the potential to become materials of the generation to be used in a series of applications, ranging from neuroscience [1] to energy fields [2]. The limited amount in nature, the increasing price and demand for conventional materials (in particular metals) suggest that low-cost, high-performance and new materials would be desirable [13]. Due to their high conductivity, flexibility, mechanical properties and low weight, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene have been recently employed in the preparation of electrodes, fibers and polymer composites for electrical applications. As far as CNTs are concerned, they can be assembled into yarns [14] and tested as wire conductors [13,15] Such fibres, yarns or ropes, keeping the density very low, Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 604.
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