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Super-aligned Carbon Nanotubes — from Growth Mechanism to

Loudspeakers

Kaili Jiang & Shoushan Fan

Department of Physics & Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center,
Tsinghua University
Email: JiangKL@tsinghua.edu.cn; fss-dmp@tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract:
Super-aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays are distinguished from normal
vertically-aligned CNT arrays by their “super-aligned” nature, i.e., the CNTs in
super-aligned arrays have a much better alignment than those in ordinary arrays.1,2
The key feature of a super-aligned CNT array is that continuous yarns or thin films,
which are composed of a thin layer of parallelly-aligned pure CNTs, can be directly
drawn from it in solid state.1-4 The as-produced yarns or thin films are transparent and
highly conductive, with aligned CNTs parallel to the draw direction. Many potential
applications for these have been demonstrated, for example as polarizers, transparent
conducting films, and polarized light sources etc.1 After passing through volatile
solutions2 or being twisted, the yarns or thin films can be further condensed into
shrunk yarns. These shrunk yarns have high tensile strengths and Young’s moduli,2
and are good candidates for thermionic3 and field emission4 electron sources. In this
talk, I will present our progress in controlled synthesis5, physical properties6 of
super-aligned CNT arrays, and more applications such as high reduced brightness
field emission electron source7, low work function thermionic emission electron
source8, CNT-based Nanogrid for HRTEM9, anodes for Lithium-ion Battery10,
incandescent displays11 will be demonstrated.
At the end of 2007, we found that very thin carbon nanotube films, once fed by sound
frequency electric currents, could emit loud sounds. This phenomenon could be
attributed to a thermoacoustic effect. The ultra small heat capacity per unit area of
carbon nanotube thin films leads to a wide frequency response range and a high sound
pressure level. Based on this finding, we made practical carbon nanotube thin film
loudspeakers, which possess the merits of nanometer thickness, transparent, flexible,
stretchable, and magnet-free. Such a single element thin film loudspeaker can be
tailored into any shape and size, freestanding or on any insulating surfaces, which
could open up new applications of and approaches to manufacturing loudspeakers and
other acoustic devices12.
1. K. L. Jiang, Q. Q. Li, S. S. Fan, Nature 419 (2002) 801.
2. X. B. Zhang, K. L. Jiang, et al. Adv. Mater. 18 (2006) 1505.
3. P. Liu, Y. Wei, K. L. Jiang et al. Phys. Rev. B. 73 (2006) 235412.
4. Y. Wei, et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 89 (2006) 063101.
5. K. Liu, et al. Nano Lett. 8 (2008) 700.

978-981-08-3694-8 (RPS) 
c 2009 IEEE NANO Organizers 473

Authorized licensed use limited to: Zhejiang University. Downloaded on October 08,2021 at 08:00:18 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 6. Y. Wei, K. L. Jiang, X. F. Feng, P. Liu, L. Liang, S. S. Fan, Phys. Rev. B. 76 (2007) 045423.
7. Y. Wei, K. L. Jiang, L. Liang, Z. Chen, S. S. Fan, Nano Lett. 7 (2007) 3792.
8. L. Xiao, et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92 (2008) 153108.
9. L. N. Zhang, et al. Nano Lett. (2008) 8, 2564.
10. H. Zhang et al., Adv. Mater. (2009) DOI: 10.1002/adma.200802290
11. P. Liu et al., Adv Mater. (2009) DOI: 10.1002/adma.200900473
12. L. Xiao et al., Nano Lett. (2008) 8, 4539.

474 9th IEEE Conference on Nanotechnology 2009

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