Digital Commons Network^™

Multifunctional Conductive Paths Obtained By Laser Processing Of Non-Conductive Carbon Nanotube/Polypropylene Composites, Federico Cesano, Mohammed Jasim Uddin, Alessandro Damin, Domenica Scarano

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Functional materials are promising candidates for application in structural health monitoring/self-healing composites, wearable systems (smart textiles), robotics, and next-generation electronics. Any improvement in these topics would be of great relevance to industry, environment, and global needs for energy sustainability. Taking into consideration all these aspects, low-cost fabrication of electrical functionalities on the outer surface of carbon-nanotube/polypropylene composites is presented in this paper. Electrical-responsive regions and conductive tracks, made of an accumulation layer of carbon nanotubes without the use of metals, have been obtained by the laser irradiation process, leading to confined polymer melting/vaporization with consequent local increase of the nanotube …