Fundamental Study of Photo-Thermo-Mechanical Actuation in Carbon Nanotubes and their Composites

碳纳米管及其复合材料光热机械驱动的基础研究

• 批准号: 0653589
• 负责人: Nikhil Koratkar
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0653589&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Fundamental; Study; Photo; Thermo; Mechanical

This project proposes to develop a new class of photo-actuated active composite materials that show potential to offer several orders of magnitude increase in stroke and force capability compared with traditional actuators. The actuators will be constructed by infiltrating carbon nanotube additives into a host structure matrix. The actuation mechanism is related to energy entrapment in the central core of the nanotube due to quantum confinement effects which generates intense heat; the heating of the nanotube causes bond expansion resulting in an extensional strain in the nano-composite. Several fundamental questions related to these new materials will be systematically addressed and answered. These include: (1) what is the optimal wavelength and intensity (power) of the photo-activation signal; (2) what are the effects of the nanotube geometry and morphology on the photo-response; (3) the effect of nanotube alignment and nanotube-matrix interfacial coupling will be investigated; (4) multiscale thermo-mechanical models will be developed to predict the actuator response and these models will be validated experimentally; (5) the force, stroke, frequency response and actuation power requirements of the optimized nano-composite actuators will be quantified and compared with traditional actuators used by industry.The outcome of this research can lead to the development of compact, light-weight and high authority photo-actuated active composite materials. Importantly the actuation capabilities can be directly engineered into the structure of interest by infiltrating minimally intrusive carbon nanotube actuation elements into the host structure matrix. Such an actuation scheme is ideal from the point of view of reducing complexity, weight and providing compactness and could enable large shape changes and morphing capability with minimal weight penalty.

该项目计划开发一种新型的光致活性复合材料，与传统的致动器相比，这种材料具有在行程和作用力方面增加几个数量级的潜力。执行器将通过将碳纳米管添加剂渗透到宿主结构基质中来构建。驱动机制与量子限制效应引起的能量在纳米管中心核的俘获有关；纳米管的加热导致键膨胀，导致纳米复合材料中的拉伸应变。将系统地讨论和回答与这些新材料有关的几个基本问题。这包括：(1)光激活信号的最佳波长和强度(功率)；(2)纳米管的几何形状和形态对光响应的影响；(3)纳米管的取向和纳米管-管界面耦合的影响；(4)将建立多尺度的热力学模型来预测驱动器的响应，并进行实验验证；(5)将优化后的纳米复合执行器的力、行程、频率响应和驱动功率需求量化，并与工业上使用的传统执行器进行比较，本研究成果将有助于开发紧凑、轻质和高权威的光驱动活性复合材料。重要的是，通过将侵入性最小的碳纳米管驱动元件渗透到主体结构基质中，可以将驱动能力直接工程到感兴趣的结构中。从降低复杂性、重量和提供紧凑性的角度来看，这种驱动方案是理想的，并且能够以最小的重量损失实现大的形状变化和变形能力。