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We are developing scalable methods to manufacture novel polymer membranes having vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the only through pores. Such nanotubes membranes have application as selectively permeable barriers for chemical and biological protective suits. Due to their small size, the nanotube pores will inherently block biological agents while still allowing heat and water vapor to pass. The membrane surface can be further functionalized to close the nanotube pores upon exposure to chemical warfare agents. The ultimate goal of this work is to devise scalable methods to manufacture large areas of these CNT membranes, and explore their fluid transport properties.
We are pursuing a solution-based approach to fabricating these membranes. We first disperse CNTs in a liquid monomer, align them with an electric field, and then polymerize the matrix to form an aligned nanotube membrane. Alignment is caused by the induced dipole in the nanotubes, which causes them to rotate to be parallel to the E-field. We seek to answer fundamental questions about the electrokinetics of E-field alignment and fabricating samples of these vertically aligned nanotube membranes. After etching to open the nanotube pores, we characterize the dry gas and water-vapor permeability of these membranes.
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