1. INTRODUCTION
Buckypaperis a thin sheet made from an aggregate ofcarbon
nanotubes.The nanotubes are approximately 50,000 times thinner than
a human hair. Originally, it was fabricated as a way to handle
carbon nanotubes, but it is also being studied and developed into
applications by several research groups, showing promise asvehicle
armor,personal armor, and next-generationelectronicsand
displays.Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess great potential for
developing high-performance and multifunctional nanocomposites for
a wide variety of applications. As the cost of producing CNT
buckypaper, a thin film of CNT networks, continues to decrease
while the quality increases, more users and companies are becoming
interested in buckypaper for potential applications. Many of these
applications, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding
and fire retardant surface skins for fiber-reinforced composites or
plastics, may not require buckypaper-based composites to be much
stronger compared to fiber-reinforced composites. This means that
there is a market for buckypaper even without its theoretical super
strength, but desired functionality. The experimental results show
that buckypapers have very low permeability, about 8-12 orders
lower than those of carbon fiber preform cases, and also sensitive
to liquid polarity due to their nanoscale porosity and large
surface area. Both solution and resin film transfer prepregging
processes were studied to pre-impregnate buckypaper to achieve 50
wt. % CNT concentration. The late one showed better quality in the
resultant nanocomposites, but difficult for high viscosity resins.
Three case studies were also conducted to demonstrate quality and
property consistency of buckypaper composites.
2. LITERATURE SURVEY2.1BACKGROUND2.1.1 CARBON NANOTUBES
Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) are allotropes of carbon with a
cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with
length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1,significantly
larger than for any other material. These
cylindricalcarbonmoleculeshave unusual properties, which are
valuable fornanotechnology,electronics,opticsand other fields
ofmaterials scienceand technology. In particular, owing to their
extraordinarythermal conductivityand mechanical
andelectricalproperties, carbon nanotubes find applications as
additives to various structural materials. For instance, nanotubes
form a tiny portion of the material(s) in some (primarilycarbon
fiber) baseball bats, golf clubs, or car parts. Nanotubes are
members of thefullerenestructural family. Their name is derived
from their long, hollow structure with the walls formed by
one-atom-thick sheets of carbon, calledgraphene. These sheets are
rolled at specific and discrete ("chiral") angles, and the
combination of the rolling angle and radius decides the nanotube
properties; for example, whether the individual nanotube shell is
ametalorsemiconductor. Nanotubes are categorized assingle-walled
nanotubes(SWNTs) andmulti-walled nanotubes(MWNTs). Individual
nanotubes naturally align themselves into "ropes" held together
byvan der Waals forces, more specifically,
pi-stacking.Appliedquantum chemistry, specifically,orbital
hybridizationbest describes chemical bonding in nanotubes.
Thechemical bondingof nanotubes is composed entirely ofsp2bonds,
similar to those ofgraphite. These bonds, which are stronger than
thesp3bondsfound inalkanesanddiamond, provide nanotubes with their
unique strength.2.1.2 BUCKMINISTER FULLERENE
Buckminster Fullerene(orbucky-ball) is a
sphericalfullerenemolecule with the formula C60. It has a cage-like
fused-ring structure which resembles asoccer ball, made of
twentyhexagonsand twelvepentagons, with a carbon atom at each
vertex of each polygon and a bond along each polygon edge.It was
first generated in 1985 byHarold Kroto,James R. Heath, Sean
O'Brien,Robert Curl, andRichard SmalleyatRice University. Kroto,
Curl and Smalley were awarded the 1996Nobel Prize in Chemistryfor
their roles in the discovery of buckminsterfullerene and the
related class of molecules, the fullerenes. The name is a reference
toBuckminster Fuller, as C60resembles his trademark geodesic.
Buckminsterfullerene is the most common naturally occurring
fullerene molecule, as it can be found in small quantities
insoot.Solid and gaseous forms of the molecule have beendetected in
deep space. Buckminsterfullerene is one of the largest objects to
have been shown to exhibitwaveparticle duality; as stated in the
theory every object exhibits this behavior. Its discovery led to
the exploration of a new field of chemistry, involving the study
offullerenes.2.1.3 FULLERENE
Afullereneis amoleculeofcarbonin the form of a
hollowsphere,ellipsoid,tube, and many other shapes. Spherical
fullerenes are also calledbuckyballs, and they resemble the balls
used infootball(soccer). Cylindrical ones are calledcarbon
nanotubesor buckytubes. Fullerenes are similar
instructuretographite, which is composed of stackedgraphenesheets
of linked hexagonal rings; but they may also contain pentagonal (or
sometimes heptagonal) rings. The first fullerene molecule to be
discovered, and the family's namesake,buckminsterfullerene(C60),
was prepared in 1985 byRichard Smalley,Robert Curl,James Heath,Sean
O'Brien, andHarold KrotoatRice University. The name was homage
toBuckminster Fuller, whosegeodesic domesit resembles. The
structure was also identified some five years earlier bySumio
Iijima, from an electron microscope image, where it formed the core
of a "bucky onion."Fullerenes have since been found to occur in
nature.More recently, fullerenes have been detected in outer
space.According to astronomer Letizia Stanghellini, "Its possible
that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth."
The discovery of fullerenes greatly expanded the number of
knowncarbon allotropes, which until recently were limited to
graphite, diamond, andamorphouscarbon such assootandcharcoal.
Buckyballs and buckytubes have been the subject of intense
research, both for their unique chemistry and for their
technological applications, especially inmaterials
science,electronics, andnanotechnology.
2.1.3.1 TYPES OF FULLERENE Buckyball Clusters: smallest member
isC20(unsaturated version ofdodecahedrane) and the most common
isC60; Nanotubes: hollow tubes of very small dimensions, having
single or multiple walls; potential applications in electronics
industry; Megatubes: larger in diameter than nanotubes and prepared
with walls of different thickness; potentially used for the
transport of a variety of molecules of different sizes; Polymers:
chain, two-dimensional and three-dimensional polymers are formed
under high-pressure high-temperature conditions; single-strand
polymers are formed using the Atom Transfer Radical Addition
Polymerization (ATRAP) route; Nano"Onions": spherical particles
based on multiple carbon layers surrounding a buckyball
core;proposed for lubricants; Linked "Ball-And-Chain" Dimers: two
buckyballs linked by a carbon chain; Fullerene rings.
2.1.4 BUCKYBALLS
2.1.4.1 BUCKMINSTER FULLERENE
Buckminsterfullerene is the smallest fullerene molecule
containing pentagonal and hexagonal rings in which no two pentagons
share an edge (which can be destabilizing, as inpentalene). It is
also the most common in terms of natural occurrence, as it can
often be found insoot.The structure of C60is atruncated
icosahedron, which resembles anassociation football ballof the type
made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, with a carbon atom at
the vertices of each polygon and a bond along each polygon
edge.Thevan der Waals diameterof a C60molecule is about
1.1nanometers(nm).The nucleus to nucleus diameter of a C60molecule
is about 0.71nm.The C60molecule has two bond lengths. The 6:6 ring
bonds (between two hexagons) can be considered "double bonds" and
are shorter than the 6:5 bonds (between a hexagon and a pentagon).
Its average bond length is 1.4 angstroms.Silicon buckyballs have
been created around metal ions.
2.1.4.2 BORON BUCKYBALL
A type of buckyball which usesboronatoms, instead of the usual
carbon, was predicted and described in 2007. The B80structure, with
each atom forming 5 or 6 bonds, is predicted to be more stable than
the C60buckyball.One reason for this given by the researchers is
that the B-80 is actually more like the original geodesic dome
structure popularized by Buckminster Fuller, which uses triangles
rather than hexagons. However, this work has been subject to much
criticism by quantum chemistsas it was concluded that the predicted
Ihsymmetric structure was vibrationally unstable and the resulting
cage undergoes a spontaneous symmetry break, yielding a puckered
cage with rare Thsymmetry (symmetry of avolleyball).The number of
six-member rings in this molecule is 20 and number of five-member
rings is 12. There is an additional atom in the center of each
six-member ring, bonded to each atom surrounding it. By employing a
systematic global search algorithm, later it was found that the
previously proposed B80 fullerene is not global minimum for 80 atom
boron clusters and hence cannot be found in nature.In the same
paper by Sandip De et al., it was concluded that born energy land
scape is significantly different from other fullerenes already
found in nature hence pure boron fullerenes are unlikely to exist
in nature.
2.1.4.3 OTHER BUCKYBALLS
Another fairly common fullerene is C70, but fullerenes with 72,
76, 84 and even up to 100 carbon atoms are commonly obtained.In
mathematical terms, the structure of a fullerene is a trivalent
convexpolyhedronwith pentagonal and hexagonal faces. Ingraph
theory, the termfullerenerefers to any 3-regular,planar graphwith
all faces of size 5 or 6 (including the external face). It follows
fromEuler's polyhedron formula,VE+F=2 (whereV,E,Fare the numbers of
vertices, edges, and faces), that there are exactly 12 pentagons in
a fullerene andV/210 hexagons.The smallest fullerene is
thedodecahedralC20. There are no fullerenes with 22 vertices.The
number of fullerenes C2ngrows with increasingn=12,13,14,...,
roughly in proportion ton9(sequenceA007894inOEIS). For instance,
there are 1812 non-isomorphic fullerenes C60. Note that only one
form of C60, the buckminsterfullerene alias truncated, has no pair
of adjacent pentagons (the smallest such fullerene). To further
illustrate the growth, there are 214,127,713 non-isomorphic
fullerenes C200, 15,655,672 of which have no adjacent pentagons.
Optimized structures of many fullerene isomers are published and
listed on the web. Trimetaspherecarbon nanomaterials were
discovered by researchers atVirginia Techand licensed exclusively
toLuna Innovations. This class of novel molecules comprises 80
carbon atoms (C80) forming a sphere which encloses a complex of
three metal atoms and one nitrogen atom. These fullerenes
encapsulate metals which puts them in the subset referred to
asmetallofullerenes. Trimetaspheres have the potential for use in
diagnostics (as safe imaging agents), therapeuticsand in organic
solar cells.
2.1.5 BUCKYPAPERBuckypaper is a macroscopic aggregate of carbon
nanotubes (CNT), or "buckytubes". It owes its name to the buck
minster fullerene, the 60 carbonfullerene(anallotropeof carbon with
similar bonding that is sometimes referred to as a "Buckyball" in
honor ofR. Buckminster Fuller). Florida State Universitys
High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI, Tallahassee, Fla., USA)
reports that has developed a new high-performance composite
material that could be up to 10 times lighter and 250 times
stronger than steel, twice as hard as diamond and highly conductive
to electricity and heat.The High-Performance Materials Institutes
research has focused on development of buckypaper, and has
reportedly already shown promise in a variety of real-world
applications. In aerospace applications, the buckypaper could
replace the current metal mesh used in the structure of the
composite aircraft to disperse lightning strikes. Replacing the
metal with buckypaper would allow lightnings electrical charge to
flow around the plane and dissipate without causing damage.
Buckypaper could also make aerostructures stronger and lighter for
increasing payloads and improving fuel efficiency.Made of
nanotubes, one of the most thermally conductive materials known,
buckypaper might lend itself to the development of heat sinks,
enabling computers and other electronic equipment to disperse heat
more efficiently than what is currently possible. And if exposed to
an electric charge, buckypaper films could illuminate computer and
television screens. When compared to cathode ray tube and liquid
crystal display technology, these screens could be lighter, more
energy efficient as well as feature a more uniform level of
brightness.Furthermore, buckypaper is flame retardant and could
help prevent fires on aircraft, ships and other structures. Other
applications include protective gear, such as helmets and body
armor for the military and police, as well as prosthetics for
wounded soldiers.According to HPMI, to the naked eye buckypaper
looks like ordinary carbon paper, but under a microscope, one can
see it is made from tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times
thinner than human hair. When sheets of buckypaper are stacked
together to become part of a composite structure, it can transform
into one of the strongest materials known to man.Right now, HPMI is
producing buckypaper at only a fraction of its potential strength,
in small quantities and at a high price. Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard
Smalley first produced buckypaper during the 1990s by filtering a
nanotube suspension in order to prepare samples for various tests.
The High-Performance Materials Institute has spent the past several
years building upon this work, making buckypapers larger and more
multifunctional for composite fabrication and achieving several
patents for its efforts.According to Frank Allen, operations
director at HPMI, when he joined the institute in 2001, the
facility was producing buckypaper at the size of a quarter, and now
it is making much larger sheets using a batch production process.In
an attempt to make buckypaper more commercially feasible, HPMI is
looking to scale up its production by working on a prototype that
would produce buckypaper strips at a rate of 5 ft/min.
2.2SYNTHESIS
The generally accepted methods of making CNT films involves the
use of non-ionicsurfactants, such asTriton X-100andsodium lauryl
sulfate,which improves their dispersibility in aqueous solution.
These suspensions can then be membrane filtered under positive or
negative pressure to yield uniform films.TheVander Waals force's
interaction between the nanotube surface and the surfactant can
often be mechanically strong and quite stable and therefore there
are no assurances that all the surfactant is removed from the CNT
film after formation. Washing with methanol, an effective solvent
in the removal of Triton X, was found to cause cracking and
deformation of the film. It has also been found that Triton X can
lead to cell lysis and in turn tissue inflammatory responses even
at low concentrations. In order to avoid adverse side-effects from
the possible presence of surfactants, an alternative casting
process can be used involving afrit compressionmethod that did not
require the use of surfactants or surface modification.The
dimensions can be controlled through the size of the syringe
housing and through the mass of carbon nanotubes added. Their
thicknesses are typically much larger than surfactant-cast
buckypaper and have been synthesized from 120 m up to 650 m; whilst
no nomenclature system exists to govern thicknesses for samples to
be classified as paper, samples with thicknesses greater than 500 m
are referred to as buckydiscs. The frit compression method allows
rapid casting of buckypaper and buckydiscs with recovery of the
casting solvent and control over the 2D and 3D geometry.
Aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) growth has been
used in CNT film synthesis through thedomino effect.In this
process, "forests" of MWCNTs are pushed flat in a single direction,
compressing their vertical orientation into the horizontal plane,
which results in the formation of high-purity buckypaper with no
further purification or treatment required. By comparison, when a
buckypaper sample was formed from the 1 ton compression of chemical
vapor deposition (CVD) generated MWCNT powder, any application of a
solvent led to the immediate swelling of the film till it reverted
into particulate matter. It appears that for the CNT powder used,
compression alone was insufficient to generate robust buckypaper
and highlights that the aligned growth methodology
generatesin-situtube-tube interactions not found in CVD CNT powder
and are preserved through to the domino pushing formation of
buckypaper.
3. BUCKYPAPER SYNONYMS
3.1 GRAPHENE OXIDE PAPER
Graphene oxide paperorgraphite oxide paperis acomposite
materialfabricated fromgraphite oxide. Micrometer thick films of
graphene oxide paper are also named as graphite oxide membranes (in
60-es) or (more recently) graphene oxide membranes. The membranes
are typically obtained by slow evaporation of graphene oxide
solution or by filtration method.The material has
exceptionalstiffnessandstrength, due to the intrinsic strength of
the two-dimensionalgraphenebackboneand to its interwoven layer
structure which distributes loads.The starting material is
water-dispersed graphene oxide flakes, which typically contain a
single graphene layer. These flakes may bechemically bonded,
leading to the development of additional new materials. Like the
starting material, graphene oxide paper is anelectrical insulator;
however, it may be possible to tune this property, making the paper
aconductororsemiconductor, without sacrificing its mechanical
properties. Detailed studies ofgraphite oxidemembranes were
performed by P.-H. Boehm (German scientist who invented term
"graphene") back in 1960. The paper titled "Graphite Oxide and its
membrane properties" reported synthesis of "paper-like foils" with
0.05mm thickness. The membranes were reported to be not permeable
by gases (nitrogen and oxygen) but easily permeable by water vapors
and, suggestively, by any other solvents which are able to
intercalate graphite oxide. It was also reported that the membranes
are not permeable by "substances of lower molecular weight".
permeation of water through the membrane was attributed to swelling
of graphite oxide structure which enables water penetration path
between individual graphene oxide layers. The interlayer distance
of dried Hummers graphite oxide was reported as 6.35 but in liquid
water it increased to 11.6. Remarkably, the paper also cited the
inter-layer distance in diluted NaOH as infinity thus reporting
dispersion of graphite oxide on single-layered graphene oxide
sheets in solution. The study also reported permeation rate of
membranes for water 0.1mg per minute per square cm. The diffusion
rate of water was evaluated as 1cm/hour. H.-P.Boehm's paper also
shows that graphite oxide can be used as cation exchange membrane
and reports measurements of osmotic pressures, membrane potentials
in KCl, HCl, CaCl2, MgCl2, BaCl2 solutions. The membranes were also
reported to be permeable by large alkaloid ions as they are able to
penetrate between graphene oxide layers. In 2012 some of the
properties of graphite oxide membranes discovered by H.P.Boehm were
re-discovered for graphene oxide membranes (essentially the same
material with new name): the membranes were reported to be not
permeable by helium but permeable by water vapors.This study was
later expanded to demonstrate that several salts (for example KCl,
MgCl2) diffuse through the graphene oxide membrane if it is
immersed in water solution. Graphene oxide membranes were also
actively studied in 60-s for application in water desalination but
it never come to practical applications.Retention rates over 90%
were reported in this study for NaCl solutions using stabilized
graphene oxide membranes in reverse osmosis setup.
3.2 SWCNT BUNDLESMost single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT)
have a diameter of close to 1nanometer, with a tube length that can
be many millions of times longer. The structure of a SWNT can be
conceptualized by wrapping a one-atom-thick layer of graphite
called graphene into a seamless cylinder. The way the graphene
sheet is wrapped is represented by a pair of indices (n,m). The
integersnandmdenote the number of unitvectorsalong two directions
in the honeycombcrystal latticeof graphene. Ifm= 0, the nanotubes
are called zigzag nanotubes, and ifn=m, the nanotubes are called
armchair nanotubes. Otherwise, they are called chiral. An ideal
SWCNT can be viewed as a graphene sheet rolled up into a seamless,
cylindrical tube with its ends capped with half of a fullerene
molecule. Both the pulsed vaporization method and the electrical
arc technique to synthesize SWNT in high yield produce SWNT bundles
(or ropes) consisting of several hundred SWNT arranged in a
two-dimensional triangular lattice. The SWNT are predicted to be
semiconducting or metallic depending on the chirality of the tubes.
Extensive experimental and theoretical efforts are being pursued to
understand their electronic, vibrational, and mechanical
properties. The phonon spectrum probed by Raman spectroscopy has
been found useful both as a characterizational tool and a testing
ground for the theoretical predictions about the electronic and
vibrational properties of SWNT. Recently, we reported tube
diameter-dependent, resonant Raman scattering from zone-center
phonons of SWNT bundles. The number of peaks, their relative
intensity, and the band shape observed in the Raman spectra of SWNT
bundles have been shown to depend sensitively on the energy of
excitation in the range 0.943.05 eV. Large resonant scattering
cross sections were observed and identified with allowed optical
transitions between the valence and conduction band spikes in the
one-dimensional electronic density of states. The relatively
intense bands observed at low (150220 cm-1) and high (15001600
cm-1) frequencies were identifiedwith the symmetric radial
breathing (R) mode and tangential (T) C-C stretching modes,
respectively.
4. BUCKY-PAPER PROCESSING
Bucky-papers are typically formed by first purifying the CNTs
and then dispersing them in a suitable solvent. Once a well
dispersed solution is achieved, it is filtered through a porous
support which captures the CNTs to form an optically opaque
Bucky-paper. If the Bucky-paper is thick enough it can be peeled
off the support filter intact. As shown by the origami plane in
Figure 2c, Bucky-papers can be mechanically robust and flexible.
Typically longer, narrower and more pure nanotubes lead to stronger
Bucky-papers with higher tensile strengths. As grown CNTs are
highly entangled and typically contaminated with metallic catalyst
particles and carbonaceous material such as amorphous carbon,
fullerenes, and graphitic nano-particles. Consequently their
purification and dispersion is a critical step in Bucky-paper
processing and can affect both the Bucky-paper structure and
properties. Figure 3, for example, compares SEM images of
Bucky-papers processed from a poorly dispersed and well dispersed
CNT solution.For purification an oxidative treatment such as nitric
acid (HNO3) or annealing is commonly used to remove amorphous
carbon which is oxidised more quickly than the CNTs. This is often
followed by an acid treatment such as Hydrochloric acid (HCl) to
dissolve any metal particles. However these treatments can also
damage and shorten the CNTs as well as functionalise them with
carboxyl and hydroxyl groups. This can be advantageous for
dispersion into polar solvents such as water. However it can also
alter the natural CNT properties. The chemical purification steps
can also be combined with physical processes such as filtration and
centrifugation.
Fig. 1 Manufacturing process of Bucky paper
(a) Process for manufacturing Bucky-papers, (b) SEM image
showing the Bucky-paper surface and (c) Bucky-paper origami
aeroplane demonstrating their flexibility mechanical
robustness.
For CNT dispersion a combination of the following strategies are
typically used:a) Covalent functionalization of the CNT surface to
improve their chemical compatibility with the dispersing medium.b)
The use of a third component such as a surfactant, polymer or
biomolecules (such as DNA).c) Mechanical treatments such as
ultrasonication and shear mixing.Carbon an element which has the
affinity to bond with itself is forming a rich variety of
structures and morphologies. Until recently only two types of -
carbon crystalline structures were known diamond and graphite. The
first carbon fibers were prepared by Thomas A. Edison to provide a
filament for an early model of an electric light bulb. Specially
selected bamboo filaments were proposed to produce a coiled carbon
resistor, which could be heated comically. Further research on
filamentous carbon proceeded more slowly, since the carbon spiral
coil was soon replaced by tungsten filaments. The second stimulus
to carbon fiber research came in the 1950s from the space and
aircraft industry, which was searching for strong stiff
light-weight fibers with superior mechanical properties. This
stimulation led to the synthesis of single crystal carbon whiskers,
which have become a benchmark for the discussion of mechanical and
elastic properties of carbon fibers. Intense efforts were invested
in reducing fiber defects and crack propagation as well as in
development of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, which preceded
the synthesis of carbon fibers by a catalytic chemical vapour
deposition (CVD) process.
5. PROPERTIES
Buckypaper is one tenth the weight yet potentially 500 times
stronger than steel when its sheets are stacked to form a
composite. Composed of tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times
thinner than a human hair. Buckypaper possesses unique properties
enabling it to conduct electricity like copper or silicon. and
disperse heat. Sheets of Buckypaper stacked and pressed together
form a composite. It has a very high thermal conductivity
Electromagnetic shielding (EMI) (Cables, Computers, Radios, Planes,
general interference). Super capacitors(Buckypaper has great
electrical conductivity although it depends heavily on the
temperature of the environment). semi-conductors (Due to
buckypapers electrical characteristics, it may one day replace or
augment silicon)semi conductors are essential to todays modern
computer. The simplest semi-conductor is a simple diode that can
either act as an insulator or a conductor. BuckyPaper can be
folded, cut with scissors, like notebook paper. We have
investigated its mechanical properties after infiltrating the paper
with epoxy base matrix phases.
6. APPLICATIONS
Electromagnetic interference shielding Radiation shielding
Lightning strike protection Heat sinks Thermal management
Electrodes for fuel cells, supercapacitors and batteries Ultra-high
strength structures Personal protection: body armor, helmets,
armored vehicles Bucky-papers have also been considered for a
number of other applications related to filtration and water
purification Fire protection: covering material with a thin layer
of buckypaper significantly improves its fire resistance due to the
efficient reflection of heat by the dense, compact layer of carbon
nanotubes or carbon fibers. If exposed to anelectric charge,
buckypaper could be used to illuminate computer and television
screens. It could be more energy-efficient, lighter, and could
allow for a more uniform level of brightness than currentcathode
ray tube(CRT) andliquid crystal display(LCD) technology. Films also
could protect electronic circuits and devices within airplanes
fromelectromagneticinterference, which can damage equipment and
alter settings. Similarly, such films could allow military aircraft
to shield their electromagnetic "signatures", which can be detected
via radar.7. ADVANTAGES Buckypaper make aero structures stronger
and lighter for increasing payloads and improving fuel efficiency.
50,000 times thinner than a human hair, and harder than diamond.
Buckypaper possesses unique properties enabling it to conduct
electricity and disperse heat more efficiently than what is
currently possible. Sheets of Buckypaper stacked and pressed
together form a composite, and it 10 times lighter but 500 times
stronger than steel. It has a very high thermal conductivity. It
acts as Super capacitors (great electrical conductivity). Acts as
Semi-conductors BuckyPaper can be folded, cut with scissors, like
notebook paper.
8. DISADVANTAGES In may not be good for the environment. The
increased glow may increase global warming. Expensive Making it is
very time consuming it take a few days to make a single role of a
few meters buckypaper.
9. FUTURE SCOPES
Using bucky paper as a therapeutic aid in medical applications
Replacing copper with buckypaper would save weight. As electrodes
for fuel cells, super capacitors and batteries Buckypaper could be
a more efficient and lighter replacement for graphite sheets used
in laptop computers to dissipate heat, which is harmful to
electronics Electromagnetic shielding (EMI) (Cables, Computers,
Radios, Planes, general interference). Super capacitors (Buckypaper
has great electrical conductivity although it depends heavily on
the temperature of the environment). Build planes, automobiles and
other things with buckypaper composites. Use in armor plating and
stealth technology. 'Bucky-paper' the new composite material for
energy efficient transport.
10. CONCLUSION
In this seminar a brief study of the light weight material
carbon fiber- buckypaper has been given, with particular emphasis
on the aircraft structures. Buckypaper is the aerospace material of
tomorrow. Carbon nanotubebucky paper is a ultra strong. It is flame
retardant and could help prevent fires on aircraft, ships and other
structures. Instead of the metal mesh currently used in the
structure of the composite aircraft to disperse lightning strikes,
provide fuel efficiency and strength. Therefore, we can hope the
future aircrafts and spacecrafts are made by carbon nanotubebucky
paper. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess great potential for
developing high-performance and multifunctional nanocomposites for
a wide variety of applications. As the cost of producing CNT
buckypaper, a thin film of CNT networks, continues to decrease
while the quality increases, more users and companies are becoming
interested in buckypaper for potential applications. Many of these
applications, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding
and fire retardant surface skins for fiber-reinforced composites or
plastics, may not require buckypaper-based composites to be much
stronger compared to fiber-reinforced composites. This means that
there is a market for buckypaper even without its theoretical super
strength, but desired functionality.
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