Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan, report that they have developed a high-performance composite made of carbon nanotubes and copper. Ampacity represents the maximum current-carrying capacity of a material. The composite combines the high ampacity of carbon nanotubes with the high conductivity of copper. As a result, the composite has the conductivity of copper with 100 times the ampacity of copper. This is the only material with both high conductivity and high ampacity, making it uniquely suited for applications in microscale electronics and inverters.
To fabricate a CNT-Cu composite that synergistically combines the strengths of both materials, the researchers developed a unique fabrication process. In contrast to conventional approaches that use CNT-Cu ion dispersions, they electrodeposited copper into the pores of premade, macroscopic CNT structures such as buckypaper.
Long, vertically aligned single-wall CNT forests (diameter=3 nm, height=500-700 μm, density=0.04 g cm−3) were synthesized on a substrate by the water-assisted method. The sparse forests were densified (~0.5 g cm−3) into closely packed and aligned CNT structure by the liquid densification technique with copper ions. Then, this CNT structure was transformed into CNT-Cu composite by two-stage nucleation-growth electrodeposition processes.
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