Fabrication and Applications of Carbon Nanotube Fibers

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have exceptional mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties compared with those of commercialized high-performance fibers. For use in the form of fabrics that can maintain such properties, individual CNTs should be held together in fibers or made into yarns twisted out of the fibers. Typical methods that are used for such purposes include (a) surfactant-based coagulation spinning, which injects a polymeric binder between CNTs to form fibers; (b) liquid-crystalline spinning, which uses the nature of CNTs to form liquid crystals under certain conditions; (c) direct spinning, which can produce CNT fibers or yarns at the same time as synthesis by introducing a carbon source into a vertical furnace; and (d) forest spinning, which draws and twists CNTs grown vertically on a substrate. However, it is difficult for those CNT fibers to express the excellent properties of individual CNTs as they are. As solutions to this problem, post-treatment processes are under development for improving the production process of CNT fibers or enhancing their properties. This paper discusses the recent methods of fabricating CNT fibers and examines some post-treatment processes for property enhancement and their applications.