Solution spinning is the most promising approach of fabricating continuous carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers in industrial scale. Understanding the relationship between processing, structures and properties is of great significance for the optimization and application of solution spun CNT fibers. In this study, the influence of dispersion time on the microstructural and mechanical properties of CNT solutions and their spun fibers were systematically investigated. It has been found that with the increasing of dispersion time, CNT bundle size and length decreased, resulting in improved homogeneity of CNT dispersions, while the mechanical properties of CNT fibers increased firstly and then decreased. The orientation of CNTs along the fiber axis was found undesirable when CNTs were either too short or too long in the solution. This study provided a general guidance for fabricating high-performance fibers from one-dimensional nanomaterials.

溶液纺丝是工业规模制造连续碳纳米管 (CNT) 纤维的最有前途的方法。了解加工、结构和性能之间的关系对于溶液纺CNT纤维的优化和应用具有重要意义。在这项研究中，系统地研究了分散时间对 CNT 溶液及其纺丝纤维的微观结构和机械性能的影响。研究发现，随着分散时间的增加，碳纳米管束尺寸和长度减小，导致碳纳米管分散的均匀性提高，而碳纳米管纤维的力学性能先升高后降低。当溶液中的碳纳米管太短或太长时，发现碳纳米管沿纤维轴的取向是不合需要的。