Processing of ductile carbon nanotube/C60 composite

A new carbon/carbon (C/C) composite was successfully produced at room temperature by drawing a silver tube containing carbon nanotubes as the fiber material and nanocrystalline carbon 60 (C60) as the matrix. Fine structures of the composite were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the mechanical properties by conventional tensile tests. TEM observations have shown that the carbon nanotubes in the composite are not damaged and well aligned along the longitudinal direction of the composite wire. The stress-strain curve of the composite wire de-sheathed by the evaporation of silver through a heat treatment exhibited an approximately 20-fold increase in fracture stress over that of polycrystalline C60, and the higher fracture strain (more than 10%). The fractured surface of the wire showed that nanotubes have been pulled out but not fractured. The experiments lead us to a new concept of a ductile C/C composite.