Highly twisted supercoils for superelastic multi-functional fibres.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30683872.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-08016-w and PMC identifier 6347621.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Highly deformable and electrically conductive fibres with multiple functionalities may be useful for diverse applications. Here we report on a supercoil structure (i.e. coiling of a coil) of fibres fabricated by inserting a giant twist into spandex-core fibres wrapped in a carbon nanotube sheath. The resulting supercoiled fibres show a highly ordered and compact structure along the fibre direction, which can sustain up to 1,500% elastic deformation. The supercoiled fibre exhibits an increase in resistance of 4.2% for stretching of 1,000% when overcoated by a passivation layer. Moreover, by incorporating pseudocapacitive-active materials, we demonstrate the existence of superelastic supercapacitors with high linear and areal capacitance values of 21.7 mF cm<sup>-1</sup> and 92.1 mF cm<sup>-2</sup>, respectively, that can be reversibly stretched by 1,000% without significant capacitance loss. The supercoiled fibre can also function as an electrothermal artificial muscle, contracting 4.2% (percentage of loaded fibre length) when 0.45 V mm<sup>-1</sup> is applied.