March 2, 2012
Contact
Public Affairs Office
601-634-3188
VICKSBURG, Miss. – ERDC's Advanced Materials Initiative (AMI) program produced a scalable molecular design for a carbon nanotube-based fiber with a maximum ultimate tensile strength of 8.6 million pounds per square inch (psi) (60-GPa), or about 86 times that of high-strength steel.
The AMI program is an ERDC multi-laboratory effort involving ERDC's Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, Information Technology Laboratory, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, and Environmental Laboratory. The AMI program employs molecular dynamics and larger-scale material simulations, combined with nanotechnology and multi-scale material experiments, to accelerate the development of advanced engineering materials.
The carbon nanotube fiber design produced by the AMI program involves creating intermolecular carbon atom cross-links between the aligned carbon nanotubes in the fiber using electron-beam or other irradiation. It is described in a May, 2011 Journal of Chemical Physics article "Very-High-Strength (60-GPa) Carbon Nanotube Fiber Design Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulations,” by Drs. Charles F. Cornwell and Charles R. Welch from ERDC's Information Technology Laboratory.
A team within ERDC’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, lead by Dr. Charles Marsh and with members Ben Ulmen and Stephen Kleppinger, is performing plasma irradiation experiments to synthesize a laboratory demonstration of the fiber with a tensile strength of at least 1 million psi (7-GPa). For the fiber to be useful for the Army and Department of Defense, however, industrial production methods must be developed for the super fiber.
A Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) proposal was submitted by Drs. Cornwell and Welch, and was accepted within the FY2012 Army STTR Program to develop such production methods. STTRs are joint grants to small business and research institutions to help move technology from government research laboratories to the market place.
Learn more about STTRs and this research at http://itl.erdc.usace.army.mil/news_release.