Northeastern University researchers headed by Assistant Professor Yung Joon Jung developed flexible hybrid composite structures using aligned multiwall carbon nanotube arrays in a poly (dimethylsiloxane) matrix - or simply called "nano skins".

The research paper appears in the March issue of The american chemical society Journal, Nano Letters. The study is collaboration between researchers of Northeastern, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and New Mexico State University who have developed a new process to make these flexible, conducting "nano skins" which can be used for various applications: from electronic paper to sensors for detecting chemical and biological agents. The materials combine the excellent strength and conductivity of carbon nanotubes with the flexibility of traditional polymers.

Nanotube arrays are held together by weak forces that don't typically maintain their shape when transferred, but the team developed a new procedure that allows them to grow nanotubes on a separate platform and then press them into the soft polymer matrix. After the molecules at the interface react with each other, the platform is peeled back from the polymer, leaving a flexible skin with organized arrays of nanotubes embedded throughout.

The skins can be bent, flexed, and rolled up like a scroll, all while maintaining their ability to conduct electricity, which makes them ideal materials for electronic paper and other flexible electronics.

The researchers believe and anticipate that tiny nanotubes in a flexible medium can be ordered as flexible nano-electronics, high-resolution flexible displays and bio-catalytic/sensing systems in our daily life.

Source: [NorthEastern U Communications and Public Relations]