Flipping Carbon Nanotubes to Continuously Produce Strong, Transparent, Multifunctional Sheets

We demonstrate carbon nanotube assembly by cooperatively rotating carbon nanotubes in vertically-oriented nanotube arrays (forests) and make 5-centimeter-wide, meter-long transparent sheets. These self-supporting nanotube sheets are initially formed as a highly anisotropic electronically conducting aerogel that can be densified into strong sheets that are as thin as 50 nanometers. The measured gravimetric strength of orthogonally oriented sheet arrays exceeds that of high strength steel sheet.Copyright © 2005 by ASME