Yarn spun from carbon nanotube forests: Production, structure, properties and applications

Abstract

The discovery of drawable carbon nanotube forests opened up the possibility of constructing a wide range of pure carbon nanotube macrostructures and sparked interests in developing applications from these structures, especially pure carbon nanotube yarns. This review examines the various facets of the drawable carbon nanotube forests, synthesis and drawability, and their resulting yarns, structure, production, properties and applications. The structure, formation and properties of carbon nanotube yarns are compared with those of conventional textile yarns in order to obtain a better understanding of the science, structural mechanics and processing technology involved in carbon nanotube yarns.