Carbon nanotube dry adhesives with temperature-enhanced adhesion over a large temperature range.

ABSTRACT: Conventional adhesives show a decrease in the adhesion force with increasing temperature due to thermally induced viscoelastic thinning and/or structural decomposition. Here, we report the counter-intuitive behaviour of carbon nanotube (CNT) dry adhesives that show a temperature-enhanced adhesion strength by over six-fold up to 143?N?cm-2 (4?mm × 4?mm), among the strongest pure CNT dry adhesives, over a temperature range from -196 to 1,000?°C. This unusual adhesion behaviour leads to temperature-enhanced electrical and thermal transports, enabling the CNT dry adhesive for efficient electrical and thermal management when being used as a conductive double-sided sticky tape. With its intrinsic thermal stability, our CNT adhesive sustains many temperature transition cycles over a wide operation temperature range. We discover that a 'nano-interlock' adhesion mechanism is responsible for the adhesion behaviour, which could be applied to the development of various dry CNT adhesives with novel features.

SUBMITTER: Xu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5116088 | biostudies-other | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other