Shear Ingenuity: Tweaking the Conductivity of Nanotube Composites

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Confocal microscope image of a carbon nanotubepolypropylene composite. Small concentrations of carbon nanotubeshere about one percent by masscan change the electrical properties of the polymer dramatically. Credit: NIST
Confocal microscope image of a carbon nanotube/polypropylene composite. Small concentrations of carbon nanotubes–here about one percent by mass–can change the electrical properties of the polymer dramatically. Credit: NIST

One of the immediate applications of carbon nanotubes (CNT) is as an additive to polymers to create electrically conducting plastics—a relatively low CNT concentration can dramatically change the polymer‘s electrical conductivity by orders of magnitude, from an insulator to a conductor.


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