Lanzara G, Yoon Y, Liu H, Peng S, Lee W-I
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, USA.
Nanotechnology. 2009 Aug 19;20(33):335704. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/20/33/335704. Epub 2009 Jul 28.
A novel nanoreservoir made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is proposed for realizing tougher and automated self-healing materials. The advantages of the approach are that CNTs have the potential to play the role of reinforcing elements prior to and after sealing a crack and that the number of voids is reduced after the material and the CNTs themselves are healed. The focus of this paper is on investigating the feasibility of using CNTs as a nanoreservoir by analyzing the dynamics of a fluid flowing out of a ruptured single-walled CNT (SWNT), where the fluid resembles an organic healing agent. With this in mind the escaping mechanism of organic molecules stored inside a cracked SWNT was investigated through a molecular dynamics study. The study shows that, when a SWNT wall suffers the formation of a crack, a certain amount of organic molecules, stored inside the SWNT, escape into space in a few picoseconds. This phenomenon is found to depend on the temperature and on the size of the cracks. The results of this study indicate that CNTs have the potential to be successfully used to realize the next generation of stronger, lighter and self-healing materials.
为了实现更强韧且自动化的自修复材料，人们提出了一种由碳纳米管（CNT）制成的新型纳米储库。该方法的优点在于，碳纳米管在裂纹密封前后都有可能起到增强元件的作用，并且在材料和碳纳米管自身愈合后，空隙数量会减少。本文的重点是通过分析从破裂的单壁碳纳米管（SWNT）中流出的流体的动力学来研究将碳纳米管用作纳米储库的可行性，其中该流体类似于有机愈合剂。基于此，通过分子动力学研究对存储在破裂的单壁碳纳米管内的有机分子的逸出机制进行了研究。研究表明，当单壁碳纳米管的管壁出现裂纹时，存储在单壁碳纳米管内的一定量有机分子会在几皮秒内逸出到空间中。发现这种现象取决于温度和裂纹的大小。这项研究的结果表明，碳纳米管有潜力成功用于实现下一代更强、更轻且能自修复的材料。
