Tuning of the electro-mechanical behavior of the cellular carbon nanotube structures with nanoparticle dispersions

Gowda, Prarthana and Ramamurty, Upadrasta and Misra, Abha (2014) Tuning of the electro-mechanical behavior of the cellular carbon nanotube structures with nanoparticle dispersions. In: APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 104 (10).

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Abstract

The mechanical and electrical characteristics of cellular network of the carbon nanotubes (CNT) impregnated with metallic and nonmetallic nanoparticles were examined simultaneously by employing the nanoindentation technique. Experimental results show that the nanoparticle dispersion not only enhances the mechanical strength of the cellular CNT by two orders of magnitude but also imparts variable nonlinear electrical characteristics; the latter depends on the contact resistance between nanoparticles and CNT, which is shown to depend on the applied load while indentation. Impregnation with silver nanoparticles enhances the electrical conductance, the dispersion with copper oxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles reduces the conductance of CNT network. In all cases, a power law behavior with suppression in the differential conductivity at zero bias was noted, indicating electron tunneling through the channels formed at the CNT-nanoparticle interfaces. These results open avenues for designing cellular CNT foams with desired electro-mechanical properties and coupling. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Publisher:	AMER INST PHYSICS
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to the AMER INST PHYSICS, USA
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Materials Engineering (formerly Metallurgy) Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Instrumentation Appiled Physics
Date Deposited:	22 May 2014 06:21
Last Modified:	22 May 2014 06:21
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/48981

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