Carbon Nanotube Bundles for Lightweight and Multifunctional Composites

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have gained considerable attention because of their excellent physical, electrical and mechanical properties. Its excellent properties make CNTs extremely interesting for the use in composites. The CNT-based composites have the potential to provide extremely strong and ultralight new materials. This dissertation aims at exploring novel approaches as well as already established techniques to fabricate CNT bundles that can be used for lightweight and multifunctional composites. This dissertation aims at fabricating CNTs bundles and characterizing their mechanical and electrical properties as a function of the CNTs length, alignment as well as the cross-links between individual CNTs (e.g. achieved by functionalization). Their use in composite materials will be tested.