Preparation of aligned carbon nanotubes: Shape-dependence on isotropic to nematic phase transition

Abstract

Liquid crystalline behavior of one-dimensional nanomaterial opens new paths to align carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Recently, our previous work has shown that the isotropic to nematic transition can be triggered by a facile filtration of CNT suspension with high concentration. In this work, we report the effect of shape of CNTs on the phase transition through four types of CNTs with different morphologies. The prepared CNT buckypapers exhibited different packing and mechanical performances.