Abstract

Driven by the exceptionally high mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), over the years an extensive research effort has been devoted to the reinforcement of high-performance polymer fibres with CNTs. However, to date, improvements in the strength of these fibres have been rather modest even for relatively high CNT contents. After a brief review of CNT reinforced polymer fibres, here, analytical and numerical finite element models will be used to show that these experimental findings are to be expected based on the intrinsic mechanical properties of these polymer fibres and CNTs, their aspect ratio and interfacial characteristics. Results show that for realistic CNT contents and aspect ratios, the extraordinary strength of CNTs cannot be easily fully exploited in high-performance polymer fibres like Dyneema®or Kevlar®. Even if CNTs are perfectly aligned, bonded and dispersed, the low intrinsic shear strength of these highly anisotropic polymer fibres limits effective stress transfer and nanotube reinforcement.

摘要

在碳纳米管（CNTs）极高的机械性能的驱动下，多年来，人们进行了广泛的研究工作，致力于用CNTs增强高性能聚合物纤维。然而，迄今为止，即使对于相对较高的CNT含量，这些纤维的强度的改善也相当适度。在简短回顾了CNT增强聚合物纤维之后，此处将使用分析和数值有限元模型来表明，基于这些聚合物纤维和CNT的内在力学性能，纵横比和界面特性，这些实验结果是可以预期的。结果表明，对于现实的CNT含量和长宽比，不能轻易充分地在高性能聚合物纤维（如Dyneema®或Kevlar®）中充分利用CNT的非凡强度。