The electrical conductivity and mechanical strength of fibers constructed from single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are usually limited by the weak interactions between individual CNTs. In this work, we report a significant enhancement of both of these properties through chemical cross-linking of individual CNTs. The CNT fibers are made by wet-spinning a CNT solution that contains 1,3,5-tris(2'-bromophenyl)benzene (2TBB) molecules as the cross-linking agent, and the cross-linking is subsequently driven by Joule heating. Cross-linking with 2TBB increases the conductivity of the CNT fibers by a factor of ∼100 and increases the tensile strength on average by 47%; in contrast, the tensile strength of CNT fibers fabricated without 2TBB decreases after the same Joule heating process. Symmetrical supercapacitors made from the 2TBB-treated CNT fibers exhibit a remarkably high volumetric energy density of ∼4.5 mWh cm-3 and a power density of ∼1.3 W cm-3.

中文翻译：

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化学交联的碳纳米管基纤维的增强的机电性能及其在高性能超级电容器中的应用。

由单壁碳纳米管（CNT）构成的纤维的电导率和机械强度通常受各个CNT之间弱相互作用的限制。在这项工作中，我们报告了通过单个CNT的化学交联，这两个属性的显着增强。CNT纤维是通过将含有1,3,5-三（2'-溴苯基）苯（2TBB）分子作为交联剂的CNT溶液湿纺制成的，​​随后通过焦耳加热来驱动交联。与2TBB的交联使CNT纤维的电导率提高了约100倍，平均抗拉强度提高了47％；相反，在相同的焦耳加热过程后，没有2TBB的CNT纤维的拉伸强度降低。