Study on Dual-Deformation of Sheath-Like Carbon Nanotube Composite Yarns

Carbon Nanotube Yarns can contract in length when stimulated by electricity, heating, etc. How to endow it with the ability of elongation deformation and realize the bidirectional controllable deformation is an urgent problem to be solved. In this paper, Carbon Nanotube Yarns was used as the core and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the sheath. The electrostriction characteristics of PDMS were combined with the electrostriction effect of carbon nanofibers to construct a Sheath-like Carbon Nanotube Composite Yarns, and its dual-deformation behavior under different current and voltage was studied. The experimental results show that when the current of 40 mA is applied to the Carbon Nanotube Yarn, the Sheath-like Carbon Nanotube Composite Yarn shows significant shrinkage deformation (1.6%), and the shrinkage stress is twice that of the pure Carbon Nanotube Yarns; when the PDMS was applied with 60 v/mu m electric field, the elongation deformation of the Sheath-like Carbon Nanotube Composite Yarn was 0.75%. It lays a foundation for the application of Carbon Nanotube Yarns in the field of flexible robot.