FeCl₃-Filled Double-Wall Carbon Nanotube Fibers with Record-High Ampacity and Conductivity

Abstract

The rapid development of intelligent electronic devices demands novel lightweight conducting wires with high ampacity. Carbon nanotube fibers (CNTFs) are regarded as an ideal candidate due to their low density, good stability, and excellent flexibility. However, because the carrier density of CNTFs is relatively low, their electrical properties need to be improved. Herein, a high vapor pressure squeezing method was developed to fill FeCl₃ into the inner hollow core and inter-tube nanovoids of highly-compacted double-wall CNT fibers (DWCNTFs) prepared by wet-spinning. It was found that the FeCl₃ nanoparticles not only provide sufficient carriers and increase the hole transfer efficiency, but also function in interlocking the aligned DWCNTs. As a result, the obtained fibers had a record-high electrical conductivity of 1.35×10⁷ S m^–1 and an ampacity of 1.57×10⁹ A m^–2, which are, respectively, 21% and 96% higher than the highest values reported for CNT fibers. The fibers also have a high tensile strength of 2.54 GPa, a high toughness of 177.2 MJ m^–3, and good stability during thermal shock cycles at temperatures of−196 to 200 °C.

Keywords

Double-wall carbon nanotube / Fiber / Conductivity / FeCl₃ filling

References

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(52130209)

National Key R&D Program of China(2022YFA1203302)

Research Fund of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science(L2022E05)

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Donghua University, Shanghai, China