Broader applications of carbon nanotubes to real-world problems have largely gone unfulfilled because of difficult material synthesis and laborious processing. We report high-performance multifunctional carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers that combine the specific strength, stiffness, and thermal conductivity of carbon fibers with the specific electrical conductivity of metals. These fibers consist of bulk-grown CNTs and are produced by high-throughput wet spinning, the same process used to produce high-performance industrial fibers. These scalable CNT fibers are positioned for high-value applications, such as aerospace electronics and field emission, and can evolve into engineered materials with broad long-term impact, from consumer electronics to long-range power transmission.

Individual carbon nanotubes are like minute bits of string, and many trillions of these invisible strings must be assembled to make useful macroscopic articles. We demonstrated such assembly at rates above 7 meters per minute by cooperatively rotating carbon nanotubes in vertically oriented nanotube arrays (forests) and made 5-centimeter-wide, meter-long transparent sheets. These self-supporting nanotube sheets are initially formed as a highly anisotropic electronically conducting aerogel that can be densified into strong sheets that are as thin as 50 nanometers. The measured gravimetric strength of orthogonally oriented sheet arrays exceeds that of sheets of high-strength steel. These nanotube sheets have been used in laboratory demonstrations for the microwave bonding of plastics and for making transparent, highly elastomeric electrodes; planar sources of polarized broad-band radiation; conducting appliqués; and flexible organic light-emitting diodes.

With their impressive individual properties, carbon nanotubes should form high-performance fibers. We explored the roles of nanotube length and structure, fiber density, and nanotube orientation in achieving optimum mechanical properties. We found that carbon nanotube fiber, spun directly and continuously from gas phase as an aerogel, combines high strength and high stiffness (axial elastic modulus), with an energy to breakage (toughness) considerably greater than that of any commercial high-strength fiber. Different levels of carbon nanotube orientation, fiber density, and mechanical properties can be achieved by drawing the aerogel at various winding rates. The mechanical data obtained demonstrate the considerable potential of carbon nanotube assemblies in the quest for maximal mechanical performance. The statistical aspects of the mechanical data reveal the deleterious effect of defects and indicate strategies for future work.

By introducing twist during spinning of multiwalled carbon nanotubes from nanotube forests to make multi-ply, torque-stabilized yarns, we achieve yarn strengths greater than 460 megapascals. These yarns deform hysteretically over large strain ranges, reversibly providing up to 48% energy damping, and are nearly as tough as fibers used for bulletproof vests. Unlike ordinary fibers and yarns, these nanotube yarns are not degraded in strength by overhand knotting. They also retain their strength and flexibility after heating in air at 450 degrees C for an hour or when immersed in liquid nitrogen. High creep resistance and high electrical conductivity are observed and are retained after polymer infiltration, which substantially increases yarn strength.

A new method is reported for preparing carbon nanotube (CNT) films. This method involves the continuous production of a hollow cylindrical CNT assembly and its condensation on a winding drum. The alignment and densification of CNTs in the film are improved by controlling the winding rate and imposition of mechanical rolling, respectively. The prepared film has a strength of 9.6 GPa, which is well above those for all other man-made films and fibers.

Artificial muscles are of practical interest, but few types have been commercially exploited. Typical problems include slow response, low strain and force generation, short cycle life, use of electrolytes, and low energy efficiency. We have designed guest-filled, twist-spun carbon nanotube yarns as electrolyte-free muscles that provide fast, high-force, large-stroke torsional and tensile actuation. More than a million torsional and tensile actuation cycles are demonstrated, wherein a muscle spins a rotor at an average 11,500 revolutions/minute or delivers 3% tensile contraction at 1200 cycles/minute. Electrical, chemical, or photonic excitation of hybrid yarns changes guest dimensions and generates torsional rotation and contraction of the yarn host. Demonstrations include torsional motors, contractile muscles, and sensors that capture the energy of the sensing process to mechanically actuate.

Translating the unique characteristics of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes into macroscopic materials such as fibres and sheets has been hindered by ineffective assembly. Fluid-phase assembly is particularly attractive, but the ability to dissolve nanotubes in solvents has eluded researchers for over a decade. Here, we show that single-walled nanotubes form true thermodynamic solutions in superacids, and report the full phase diagram, allowing the rational design of fluid-phase assembly processes. Single-walled nanotubes dissolve spontaneously in chlorosulphonic acid at weight concentrations of up to 0.5 wt%, 1,000 times higher than previously reported in other acids. At higher concentrations, they form liquid-crystal phases that can be readily processed into fibres and sheets of controlled morphology. These results lay the foundation for bottom-up assembly of nanotubes and nanorods into functional materials.

Well-aligned macroscopic fibers composed solely of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were produced by conventional spinning. Fuming sulfuric acid charges SWNTs and promotes their ordering into an aligned phase of individual mobile SWNTs surrounded by acid anions. This ordered dispersion was extruded via solution spinning into continuous lengths of macroscopic neat SWNT fibers. Such fibers possess interesting structural composition and physical properties.

A simple method was used to assemble single-walled carbon nanotubes into indefinitely long ribbons and fibers. The processing consists of dispersing the nanotubes in surfactant solutions, recondensing the nanotubes in the flow of a polymer solution to form a nanotube mesh, and then collating this mesh to a nanotube fiber. Flow-induced alignment may lead to a preferential orientation of the nanotubes in the mesh that has the form of a ribbon. Unlike classical carbon fibers, the nanotube fibers can be strongly bent without breaking. Their obtained elastic modulus is 10 times higher than the modulus of high-quality bucky paper.

Mechanical energy harvesters are needed for diverse applications, including self-powered wireless sensors, structural and human health monitoring systems, and the extraction of energy from ocean waves. We report carbon nanotube yarn harvesters that electrochemically convert tensile or torsional mechanical energy into electrical energy without requiring an external bias voltage. Stretching coiled yarns generated 250 watts per kilogram of peak electrical power when cycled up to 30 hertz, as well as up to 41.2 joules per kilogram of electrical energy per mechanical cycle, when normalized to harvester yarn weight. These energy harvesters were used in the ocean to harvest wave energy, combined with thermally driven artificial muscles to convert temperature fluctuations to electrical energy, sewn into textiles for use as self-powered respiration sensors, and used to power a light-emitting diode and to charge a storage capacitor.Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Wearable and stretchable electronics including various conductors and sensors are featured with their lightweight, high flexibility, and easy integration into functional devices or textiles. However, most flexible electronic materials are still unsatisfactory due to their poor recoverability under large strain. Herein, we fabricated a carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polyurethane (PU) nanofibers composite helical yarn with electrical conductivity, ultrastretchability, and high stretch sensitivity. The synergy of elastic PU molecules and spring-like microgeometry enable the helical yarn excellent stretchability, while CNTs are stably winding-locked into the yarn through a simple twisting strategy, making good conductivity. By virtue of the interlaced conductive network of CNTs in microlevel and the helical structure in macrolevel, the CNTs/PU helical yarn achieves good recoverability within 900% and maximum tensile elongation up to 1700%. With these features, it can be used as a superelastic and highly stable conductive wire. Moreover, it also can monitor the human motion as a rapid-response strain sensor by adjusting the content of the CNTs simply. This general and low-cost strategy is of great promise for ultrastretchable wearable electronics and multifunctional devices.

The increasing demand for wearable electronic devices has made the development of highly elastic strain sensors that can monitor various physical parameters an essential factor for realizing next generation electronics. Here, we report an ultrahigh stretchable and wearable device fabricated from dry-spun carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers. Stretching the highly oriented CNT fibers grown on a flexible substrate (Ecoflex) induces a constant decrease in the conductive pathways and contact areas between nanotubes depending on the stretching distance; this enables CNT fibers to behave as highly sensitive strain sensors. Owing to its unique structure and mechanism, this device can be stretched by over 900% while retaining high sensitivity, responsiveness, and durability. Furthermore, the device with biaxially oriented CNT fiber arrays shows independent cross-sensitivity, which facilitates simultaneous measurement of strains along multiple axes. We demonstrated potential applications of the proposed device, such as strain gauge, single and multiaxial detecting motion sensors. These devices can be incorporated into various motion detecting systems where their applications are limited to their strain.

随着智能终端的普及，可穿戴电子设备呈现出巨大的市场前景.传感器作为核心部件之一，将影响可穿戴设备的功能设计与未来发展.柔性可穿戴电子传感器具有轻薄便携、电学性能优异和集成度高等特点，使其成为最受关注的电学传感器之一.综述了近年来柔性可穿戴电子传感器的研究进展，包括压阻、电容、压电、力致发光和摩擦电等信号转换机理，金属、无机半导体、有机和碳材料等柔性可穿戴电子的常用材料，柔性电子传感器的印刷制造及其在体温和脉搏检测、表情识别和运动监测等方面的最新应用，最后提出了柔性可穿戴电子传感器面临的挑战与未来发展方向.

With the development of intelligent terminals, wearable electronic devices show a great market prospect. As one core component of the wearable electronic device, the sensor will exert a significant influence on the design and function of the wearable electronic device in the future. Compared with the traditional electrical sensors, flexible wearable sensors have the advantages of being light, thin, portable, highly integrated and electrically excellent. It has become one of the most popular electronic sensors. This review focused on recent research advances of flexible wearable sensors, including signal transduction mechanisms, general materials, manufacture processes and recent applications. Piezoresistivity, capacitance and piezoelectricity are three traditional signal transduction mechanism. For accessing the dynamic pressure in real time and developing stretchable energy harvesting devices, sensors based on the mechanoluminescent mechanism and triboelectric mechanism are promising. Common materials used in flexible wearable electronic sensors, such as flexible substrates, metals, inorganic semiconductors, organics and carbons, are also introduced. In addition to the continuously mapping function, wearable sensors also have the practical and potential applications, which focused on the temperature and pulse detection, the facial expression recognition and the motion monitoring. Finally, the challenges and future development of flexible wearable sensors are presented.

Electrochemical sensors are gaining significant demand for real-time monitoring of health-related parameters such as temperature, heart rate, and blood glucose level. A fiber-like microelectrode composed of copper oxide-modified carbon nanotubes (CuO@CNTFs) has been developed as a flexible and wearable glucose sensor with remarkable catalytic activity. The unidimensional structure of CNT fibers displayed efficient conductivity with enhanced mechanical strength, which makes these fibers far superior as compared to other fibrous-like materials. Copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were deposited over the surface of CNT fibers by a binder-free facile electrodeposition approach followed by thermal treatment that enhanced the performance of non-enzymatic glucose sensors. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the successful deposition of CuO nanoparticles over the fiber surface. Amperometric and voltammetric studies of fiber-based microelectrodes (CuO@CNTFs) toward glucose sensing showed an excellent sensitivity of ∼3000 μA/mM cm, a low detection limit of 1.4 μM, and a wide linear range of up to 13 mM. The superior performance of the microelectrode is attributed to the synergistic effect of the electrocatalytic activity of CuO nanoparticles and the excellent conductivity of CNT fibers. A lower charge transfer resistance value obtained via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) also demonstrated the superior electrode performance. This work demonstrates a facile approach for developing CNT fiber-based microelectrodes as a promising solution for flexible and disposable non-enzymatic glucose sensors.© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

Ascorbic acid (AA) levels are closely correlated with physiological and pathological events in brain diseases, but the mechanism remains unclear, mainly due to the difficulty of accurately analyzing AA levels in live brain. In this study, by engineering tunable defects and oxygen-containing species in carbon nanotubes, a novel aligned carbon nanotube fiber was developed as an accurate microsensor for the ratiometric detection of AA levels in live rat brains with Alzheimer's disease (AD). AA oxidation is greatly facilitated on the fiber surface at a low potential, leading to high sensitivity as well as high selectivity against potential sources of interference in the brain. Additionally, an unexpected, separate peak from the fiber surface remains constant as the AA concentration increases, enabling real-time and ratiometric detection with high accuracy. The results demonstrated that the AA levels were estimated to be 259 ± 6 μM in cortex, 264 ± 20 μM in striatum, and 261 ± 21 μM in hippocampus, respectively, in normal condition. However, the overall AA level was decreased to 210 ± 30 μM in cortex, 182 ± 5 μM in striatum, and 136 ± 20 μM in hippocampus in the rat brain model of AD. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to accurately detect AA concentrations in the brains of live animal model of AD.

Mechanical mismatches between implanted electronics and biological tissues can lead to inaccurate readings and long-term tissue damage. Here, we show that functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes twisted into helical fibre bundles that mimic the hierarchical structure of muscle can monitor multiple disease biomarkers in vivo. The flexible fibre bundles are injectable, have a low bending stiffness and display ultralow stress under compression. As proof-of-concept evidence of the sensing capabilities of these fibre bundles, we show that the fibre bundles enable the spatially resolved and real-time monitoring of HO when implanted in tumours in mice, and that they can be integrated with a wireless transmission system on an adhesive skin patch to monitor calcium ions and glucose in the venous blood of cats for 28 d. The versatility of the helical fibre bundles as chemically functionalized electrochemical sensors makes them suitable for multiple sensing applications in biomedicine and healthcare.

Fibers made of CNTs are attractive microelectrode sensors because they can be directly fabricated into microelectrodes. Different protocols for making CNT fibers have been developed, but differences in surface structure and therefore electrochemical properties that result have not been studied. In this study, we correlated the surface and electrochemical properties for neurochemical detection at 3 types of materials: CNT fibers produced by wet spinning with (1) polyethylenimine (PEI/CNT) or (2) chlorosulfonic acid (CA/CNT), and (3) CNT yarns made by solid-based CNT drawing. CNT yarns had well-aligned, high purity CNTs, abundant oxygen functional groups, and moderate surface roughness which led to the highest dopamine current density (290 ± 65 pA/cm) and fastest electron transfer kinetics. The crevices of the CNT yarn and PEI/CNT fiber microelectrodes allow dopamine to be momentarily trapped during fast-scan cyclic voltammetry detection, leading to thin-layer cell conditions and a response that was independent of applied waveform frequency. The larger crevices on the PEI/CNT fibers led to a slower time response, showing too much roughness is detrimental to fast detection. CA/CNT fibers have a smoother surface and lower currents, but their negative surface charge results in high selectivity for dopamine over uric acid or ascorbic acid. Overall, small crevices, high conductivity, and abundant oxygen groups led to high sensitivity for amine neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin. Thus, different surfaces of CNT fibers result in altered electrochemical properties and could be used in the future to predict and control electrochemical performance.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

随着绿色储能器件的快速发展，超级电容器作为兼具高比能量与高比功率的优点，在储能领域具有重要发展潜力的新型储能器件，本综述从超级电容器的电极材料出发，详细概括了超级电容器电极材料的发展，包括双电层电容材料、赝电容材料以及双电层/赝电容复合材料；在此基础上，基于固态电解质，深入讨论了近年来全固态超级电容器的典型构型，针对性地总结了提高储能器件储能容量的关键问题。最后，基于电极材料与电解液的研究焦点，对超级电容器的研究提出了未来发展方向。

 With the sustainable development of green energy storage devices, supercapacitors that hold both high energy density and power density have shown significant potential in the energy storage filed. In this work, we reviewed the advancement achieved in the supercapacitor electrodes, including electrical double-layer, pseudo-capacitive and their hybrid electrodes. On the basis of the electrodes, the typical prototypes of all-solid-state supercapacitors have been intensively discussed with the employment of solid-state electrolytes, and key parameters for promoting the energy density of the devices have been summarized. According to the critical issues in the electrodes and electrolytes, the perspective toward supercapacitor research and development has been proposed.

Metal-air batteries in fiber shape, which are theoretically endowed with high energy densities, have emerged as a versatile platform for the advance of next-generation flexible electronics. The past decade has witnessed the booming development of fiber-shaped metal-air batteries including flexible lithium-air (oxygen) batteries, zinc-air batteries, aluminum-air batteries and lithium-CO2 batteries. Here the recent advances of fiber-shaped metal-air batteries are briefly summarized, with particular emphasis on the fabrication of flexible electrodes, the electrolyte exploitation and encapsulating material optimization. The remaining challenges and promising directions are highlighted to provide clues for the practical implementation of fiber-shaped metal-air batteries.

With the development of wearable electronics, sustainable energy-charged fiber-shaped aqueous rechargeable batteries have become attractive power sources. Environmentally benign zinc-silver oxide (Zn-Ag2O) batteries with high energy density and ultra-stable output voltage have been demonstrated to be promising energy-storage devices. However, the major bottleneck for extensive application of Zn-Ag2O batteries is poor cyclic performance and low energy density due to structural pulverization, migration of Ag ions, and low loading of active substances. Herein, a quasi-solid-state fiber-shaped Zn-Ag2O battery was constructed employing Ag2O on a metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived N-doped carbon nanosheet array (NC) with a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) buffer layer as the cathode. A PEDOT:PSS protective layer could suppress structural pulverization and alleviate the migration of Ag ions. An MOF-derived NC skeleton enabled maintenance of structural integrity and increased the mass loading of Ag2O. This resulted in a quasi-solid-state fiber-shaped Zn-Ag2O battery delivering a high energy density of 1.57 mW h cm(-2) and remarkable cyclic durability (79.5% after 200 cycles), which are higher than those reported for any state-of-the-art Zn-Ag2O battery. More importantly, the as-fabricated Zn-Ag2O battery could be charged solely by wind energy. Thus, the present work provides a new way to harvest clean and renewable wind energy for portable and wearable electronics.