Making Smart Composites Using Carbon Nanotubes
Sumanth Banda, a graduate student pursuing an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the Virginia Commonwealth University, recently participated in a student competition at the SPIE: Smart Structures and Materials Conference, San Diego, Calif., March 14 –18, 2004. Banda came in 3rd place for Best ASME/SPIE student paper, winning an award and a cash prize. Banda is a research assistant in the Electroactive Materials Characterization Laboratory at VCU.
Banda’s paper was entitled, "Aligned Carbon Nanotube Polymer Composites: Investigating Their Electrical and Physical Characteristics.”
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nano-sized slender fullerenes tubes that exhibit exceptional mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. The focus of the research at the Electroactive Materials Characterization Laboratory is on exploiting the superb properties of CNTs by incorporating them as inclusions in polymer composites to engineer smart sensors and actuators. The goal is to achieve alignment and dispersion of CNT, resulting in a composite that combines high dielectric constant with low electric conduction. Electromechanical response of such nanocomposites will exceed the best ceramics currently available and preserve advantages of the polymers. These novel materials will have tremendous impact in structural health monitoring and vibration control in numerous industrial, civil, medical and aerospace applications.
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