Electrically Conductive Hierarchical Carbon Nanotube Networks with Tunable Mechanical Response

Densely Branched Carbon Nanotubes for Boosting the Electrochemical Performance of Li-S Batteries

To address the inherent limitations of conventional carbon nanotubes (CNTs), such as their tendency to agglomerate and scarcity of catalytic sites, the development of branched carbon nanotubes (BCNTs) with a unique hierarchical structure has emerged as a promising solution. Herein, gram scale quantities of densely branched and structurally consistent Ni-Fe decorated branched CNTs (Ni-Fe@BCNT) have been prepared. This uniform and densely branched architecture ensures excellent dispersibility and superior electrical conductivity. Additionally, each branched tip is equipped with Ni-Fe particles, thereby providing numerous catalytic sites which endow them with exceptional catalytic activity for the conversion of polysulfides. The polypropylene (PP) separator modified with Ni-Fe@BCNT interlayer is fabricated as a multifunctional barrier for Li-S batteries. The experimental results demonstrate that Ni-Fe@BCNT interlayer can effectively suppress the shuttle effect of polysulfides and enhance their redox kinetics. The outstanding catalytic ability of Ni-Fe@BCNT interlayer enables batteries with high specific capacities, outstanding rate performance, and remarkable cycling stability. This approach proposed in this work paves a new path for synthesizing BCNTs and shows great potential for scaling up the production of BCNTs to address more demanding applications.

Growth and Mechanics of Heterogeneous, 3D Carbon Nanotube Forest Microstructures Formed by Sequential Selective-Area Synthesis

Three-dimensional carbon nanotube (CNT) forest microstructures are synthesized using sequenced, site-specific synthesis techniques. Thin-film layers of Al₂O₃ and Al₂O₃/Fe are patterned to support film-catalyst and floating-catalyst chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in specific areas. Al₂O₃ regions support only floating-catalyst CVD, whereas regions of layered Al₂O₃/Fe support both film- and floating-catalyst CNT growth. Sequenced application of the two CVD methods produced heterogeneous 3D CNT forest microstructures, including regions of only film-catalyst CNTs, only floating-catalyst CNTs, and vertically stacked layers of each. The compressive mechanical behavior of the heterogeneous CNT forests was evaluated, with the stacked layers exhibiting two distinct buckling plateaus. Finite element simulation of the stacked layers demonstrated that the relatively soft film-catalyst CNT forests were nearly fully buckled prior to large-scale deformation of the bottom floating-catalyst CNT forests.

Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Structural Composite Supercapacitor

Carbon nanotubes exhibit mechanical properties ideally suited for reinforced structural composites and surface area and conductivity attractive for electrochemical capacitors. Here we demonstrate the multifunctional synergy between these properties in a composite material exhibiting simultaneous mechanical and energy storage properties. This involves a reinforcing electrode developed using dense, aligned carbon nanotubes grown on stainless steel mesh that is layered in an ion conducting epoxy electrolyte matrix with Kevlar or fiberglass mats. The resulting energy storage composites exhibit elastic modulus over 5 GPa, mechanical strength greater than 85 MPa, and energy density up to 3 mWh/kg for the total combined system including electrodes, current collector, Kevlar or fiberglass, and electrolyte matrix. Furthermore, findings from in-situ mechano-electro-chemical tests indicate simultaneous mechanical and electrochemical functionality with invariant and stable supercapacitor performance maintained throughout the elastic regime.

A high areal capacity lithium-sulfur battery cathode prepared by site-selective vapor infiltration of hierarchical carbon nanotube arrays

The widespread use of melt infiltration has to date restricted sulfur-carbon cathode architectures to only host materials processed as bulk powders with no site control of sulfur deposits. Here, we combine structurally designed hierarchical carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays with site-selective vapor phase sulfur infiltration to produce thick electrodes with controlled sulfur loading and high areal performance. Our results illustrate the critical role structural hierarchy plays in sustaining electrical connectivity to enable high utilization of the sulfur embedded in thick electrodes with high gravimetric loading. Here, a primary large-diameter CNT population provides robust conductive trunks that branch into a secondary small-diameter and high-surface-area CNT population capable of giving rapid electrical access to coated sulfur. Site-selective vapor phase sulfur infiltration, based on the capillary effect, controllably targets loading of one or both of the CNT populations to facilitate gravimetric loading from 60 wt% to 70 wt% sulfur. With the high areal loading of 6 mg cm^-2, we demonstrate 1092 mA h g_S^-1 and 6.5 mA h cm^-2 and excellent rate performance with >60% capacity retained at 10 times the discharge rate. Overall, our work leverages site control of sulfur incorporation into a host cathode enabled by controlled CNT growth techniques to emphasize the important principle of "quality over quantity" in designing high areal loading strategies with high areal performance and good sulfur utilization.