Production and Properties of Carbon Nanotube/Cellulose Composite Paper

Abstract

Multiwalled carbon nanotube/cellulose composite papers have been prepared by mixing the cellulose with MWNT/gelatin solution and drying at room temperature. The CNTs form an interconnected network on the cellulose paper and as a result CNT paper sheet exhibits enhanced electrical properties and thermal stabilities. It is found that both sides of CNT paper sheet have the uniform electrical conductivities. The sheet exhibits strong microwave absorption in the microwave range of 10.5 GHz. The CNT/cellulose paper is as flexible and mechanically tough as the pure cellulose paper. This work provides a novel and simple pathway to make CNT/cellulose sheet as multifunctional biomaterials for electronic, magnetic, semiconducting, and biotechnological applications.

Production of Water Dispersible Carbon Nanotubes and Nanotube/Cellulose Composite

“…From the TG curves, it is observed that the combustion rate of CNT/cellulose sheet is 22% less than that of the pure cellulose sheet. This result signifies that the thermal stability Carbon Nanotubes -Recent Progress of the sheet is improved by adding MWNTs [35,37,39]. There is also an additional peak at 477°C on the CNT/cellulose curve before the final combination peak, which corresponds to the combustion of the gelatin.…”

“…Figure 15(e) shows the flexible nature of the paper sheet, because repeated bending of paper sheet does not make any significant change of the current conduction through the paper sheet, and temperature also remains almost constant. These results mentioned above indicate that CNT/cellulose sheet can be used as an electrothermal heating element [37].…”

“…Both the sheets are hanged on a metal supporter and ignited simultaneously by a gas flame. It is observed that the cellulose sheet burns quickly to ashes completely within 20 s, but the CNT/cellulose takes more than half minutes to burn and turns to charcoal, which indicates that added MWNTs improved the flame retardancy of the sheet [37]. Figure 15(a).…”

“…Resistance is measured of 10 randomly chosen measuring points on both sides (A side and B side) of Carbon Nanotubes -Recent Progress conductivity, σ = 4.38 mS/m) and the B side has resistance, R = 1.103 MΩ (standard deviations, s = ±0.05, electrical conductivity, σ = 4.53 mS/m). Therefore, it is noticed that the conductivity can be improved by increasing the amount of CNTs added to the cellulose [37]. I-V in characteristic curve shows the ohmic conduction on the paper sheet as shown in Figure 12.…”

“…CNT forms a conducting network using its electron donating and accepting ability in the composite [6,[34][35][36]. These CNT/cellulose composite materials have some outstanding properties such as being highly strong, electrically and thermally conductive, and the usage of these materials have been widely investigated [35][36][37][38]. CNT/pulp has been prepared by a paper making process, which is a fast, simple, robust, low-cost, and readily scalable process.…”