Novel and versatile process for the preparation of polyvinyl alcohol composite carbon nanotube fibers/yarns

We report our discovery of a new process to produce composite carbon nanotubes (CNT) fibers from single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTS) or the combinations thereof utilizing already an adhesive (polymer) coated layer on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film strip by simply applying CNT coating on the layer followed by an acid dipping. We also found that applying either an additional base treatment or an additional polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer coating to the CNT-coated strip after the strip was dipped in acid enables us to achieve even higher mechanical properties compared to the former process.