Kate McDonell

BE (Hons)
Postgraduate Research Student




School of Civil Engineering, Room 360
Phone: +61 2 9351 5155
Fax: +61 2 9351 3343
Email:

Research project - Nanoengineering carbon nanotubes for improvement of the bundled properties

Supervisor: Dr Gwenaelle Proust
Associate Supervisor: Dr Luming Shen

There has been considerable interest in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) since their detection in 1991 by Iijima. This interest is due to CNTs extraordinary properties including high tensile strength and flexibility. These properties are derived from CNT unique structure which features an enormous aspect ratio.

While single isolated nanotubes report extraordinary properties, bundles of nanotubes do not achieve these results. In a bundle, nanotubes align themselves along the length of the nanotube and are separated by weak repulsive interactions i.e. Van der Waals (VdW) interactions. VdW interactions cause nanotubes in a bundle to act as disparate entities rather than as a single unit.

Figure A: A rope of single-walled nanotubes at 800,000 X in a JEOL Transmission Electron Microscope

One potential solution for this phenomenon is to connect nanotubes in a bundle using covalent bonding. Covalent bonding between nanotubes is much stronger than weak VdW interactions leading to improved properties. My research aims to induce these bonds, cross links, between adjacent nanotubes using electron irradiation. At the moment I am working on a combined experimental and simulation approach to investigate the impacts of electron irradiation on carbon nanotube morphology and properties.

Figure B: Visualisation of molecular dynamics simulation output with two single-walled nanotubes (orange) and defect induced by irradiation (purple)

Publications

• K. McDonell, G Proust, L. Shen, 2010, IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 10 012180
  doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/10/1/012180