Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 5, Issue 9, Pages 6945-6954Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nn2014003
Keywords
nanofibers; transparent nanocomposites; layer-by-layer assembly; LBL; Kevlar; aramid fibers
Categories
Funding
- ONR [N00014-06-1-0473]
- AFOSR [GRT00008581/RF60012388]
- Center for Solar and Thermal Energy Conversion, an Energy Frontier Research Center
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-SC0000957]
- NSF [ECS-0601345, EFRI-BSBA 0938019, CBET 0933384, CBET 0932823, CBET 1036672, DMR-9871177]
- AFOSR MURI [444286-P061716]
- NIH [1R21CA121841-01A2]
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Stable dispersions of nanofibers are virtually unknown for synthetic polymers. They can complement analogous dispersions of inorganic components, such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanosheets, etc. as a fundamental component of a toolset for design of nanostructures and metamaterials via numerous solvent-based processing methods. As such, strong flexible polymeric nanofibers are very desirable for the effective utilization within composites of nanoscale inorganic components such as nanowires, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and others. Here stable dispersions of uniform high-aspect-ratio aramid nanofibers (ANFs) with diameters between 3 and 30 nm and up to 10 mu m in length were successfully obtained, Unlike the traditional approaches based on polymerization of monomers, they are made by controlled dissolution of standard macroscale form of the aramid polymer, that is, well-known Kevlar threads, and revealed distinct morphological features similar to carbon nanotubes. ANFs are successfully processed into films using layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly as one of the potential methods of preparation of composites from ANFs. The resultant films are transparent and highly temperature resilient. They also display enhanced mechanical characteristics making ANF films highly desirable as protective coatings, ultrastrong membranes, as well as building blocks of other high performance materials in place of or in combination with carbon nanotubes.
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