Fabrication of stacked-cup carbon nanotube/polymer nanocomposite films with linear controlled percolation routes

•Controlled linear assemblies of stacked-cup carbon nanotubes (LA-SCCNTs).•Noticeable decrease of micropores in composite films by solvent & vacuum treatments.•Significant decrease in the electrical resistivity with reduced amount of filler.•Potential as biomedical electrode sensors that do not result in EEG artifacts.•No generation of artifact images under X-rays.

Linear assemblies of stacked-cup carbon nanotubes (SCCNTs) were fabricated with structural variation triggered-by applied electric field in a polymer matrix while the prepolymer suspension of polysiloxane was cross-linked. Combination of solvent and the vacuum treatment was applied to facilitate the narrower filler-to-filler gaps with decreased void volume of the composite. The assembly of the SCCNTs in the polymer was achieved without surface modification at less than 0.15 vol% filler. The resulting polymer nanocomposites had significantly fewer micropores and decreased electrical resistivity, a decrease of 5 orders of magnitude compared with composite with a random distribution of fillers, demonstrating their potential as an electrode sensor for biomedical brain-wave monitoring without generating artifact images. This work may provide valuable guidelines for designing optimum polymer electrode sensors from 1 dimensional SCCNT assemblies.

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