(405d) 1D Fiber Spinning, 2D Coating Technology and 3D Printing for Nanocarbon-Included Composite Manufacturing

This research will describe a few manufacturing methods incorporating nanoscale carbons in polymeric nanocompsoites. These composites are useful for either structural composites or funcitoanl hybrid materials. The polymers and carbon nanometerials will form layered strucutres in 1D fibers, 2D coatings and 3D stacked laminates. Layer-structured composites have a broad application in light composites, capacitors, drug delivery, batteries, sensors, actuators, and many others. Here reported are three case studies of layered structures at nano- and micro-scales that display great potential in rapid prototyping of versatile sensors. The first example exhibited the use of a few polymers and nano carbons in co-axial composite fibers. This demonstraiton leveraged the tooling engineering of the spinneret and successfully fabricated multiphase composite fibers that can simultaneously exfoliate and align graphene layers. The second exhibition was about the layeres of conjugating polymers and carbon nanoparticles, especially about how the nanostructure will influence the thermal and thermoelectrical perforances. The last case was the feasibility of combining 3D printing and dip coating in making layered composites. During the nanoparticle assembly procedure, the surface morphology and the solid-liquid-air interface control exhibited efficient management of nanoparticle topologies for a unit layer.