Strong Fiber from Uniaxial Fullerene Supramolecules Aligned with Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT) wires approach copper's specific conductivity and surpass carbon fiber's strength, with further improvement anticipated with greater aspect ratios and incorporation of dopants with long-range structural order. Fullerenes assemble into multitudes of process-dependent supramolecular crystals and, while initially insulating, they become marginally conductive (up to 0.05 MSm${}^{-1}$) and superconductive ($T_c=18^{\circ }$K with K and 28${}^{\circ }$K with Rb) after doping. These were small (100's $\hat{I}¼$m long), soft (hardness comparable to indium), and typically unaligned, which hindered development of fullerene based wires. Individual fullerenes were previously incorporated into CNT fibers, although randomly without self-assembly into supramolecules. Here, a simple variation in established CNT acid extrusion creates a fiber composed of uniaxial chains of aligned fullerene supramolecules, self-assembled between aligned few-walled CNT bundles. This will provide a testbed for novel fullerene wire transport and prospects in CNT wire advancement.