Polymer-derived ceramic fibers with aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are fabricated through the electrospinning of polyaluminasilazane solutions with well-dispersed MWCNTs followed by pyrolysis. Poly(3-hexylthiophene)-b-poly (poly (ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate) (P3HT-b-PPEGA), a conjugated block copolymer compatible with polyaluminasilazane, is used to functionalize MWCNT surfaces with PPEGA, providing a non-invasive approach to disperse carbon nanotubes in polyaluminasilazane chloroform solutions. The electrospinning of the MWCNT/polyaluminasilazane solutions generates polymer fibers with aligned MWCNTs where MWCNTs are oriented along the electrospun jet by a sink flow. The subsequent pyrolysis of the obtained composite fibers produces ceramic fibers with aligned MWCNTs. Both the SEM and TEM characterization of the polymer and ceramic fibers demonstrates efficient alignment of CNTs along the fibers. The electrical conductivity of a ceramic fibers with 1.2 % aligned MWCNTs is measured to be 1.58�10-6 S/cm that is more than 500 times higher than that of bulk ceramic (3.43�10-9 S/cm).

Polymer-derived ceramic composite fibers with aligned pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes

240th National Meeting (2010)

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