Utilization of carboxylic functional groups generated during purification of carbon nanotube fiber for its strength improvement

One of the most promising method to produce carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber is directly spinning CNT fiber from CNT aerogel. Despite the advantage of this method in terms of productivity, the CNTs thus produced include impurities such as amorphous carbon and residual catalysts. To remove these unwanted materials, the CNT fiber is usually subjected to acid treatment. At the same time, however, the acid treatment damages the CNT wall, creating functional groups on it. In this work, specific tensile strength of CNT fibers was increased by introducing cross-links between the individual CNTs using carboxylic functional groups which were inevitably generated during the acid treatment of CNT fibers. The esterification of the carboxylic acid with 1,5-pentanediol as a linker resulted in cross-links in between the CNTs, thereby increasing the specific strength of the CNT fiber from 0.43 to 1.12 N/tex and Young's modulus from 30.70 to 47.57 N/tex. Supporting weak shear interactions of untreated CNT fiber by adding covalent bonding through the cross-linking reaction led to the improvement of mechanical properties of the CNT fiber. Elimination of impurities and narrowed interspacing between CNT bundles caused by acid treatment was also confirmed, which additionally contributed to enhancing the mechanical properties of CNT fiber.