Mr Ken Atkinson and his team are working on ways to industrialise the carbon nanotube spinning process.
By applying twist to carbon nanofibres, CSIRO has produced extremely fine, multi-ply yarns with a diameter only two per cent of that of a human hair.
The yarns are relatively strong and have many other remarkable properties.
Current activities
Mr Ken Atkinson is a Stream Leader in electro-active materials at CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering.
He is also continuing development of conventional textile technologies in spinning and carding for the wool theme.
One of his project areas is the application of carbon nanotubes in textiles.
Mr Atkinson and his research team are working with the NanoTech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas to develop fabrics made of carbon nanotubes - minute fibres that are often only 300 micrometres long (about one-third of a millimetre).
In 2003, Mr Atkinson applied his understanding of the mechanics of staple yarn structure to the problem of producing indefinitely long yarns from carbon nanotubes.
His theoretical calculations and computer simulations suggested that carbon nanotubes could be spun into yarn, just as conventional textile fibres like wool and cotton have been for centuries.
Background
A physicist, he has decades of experience in inventing and developing new textile technologies, and is recognised internationally for numerous commercial innovations in fibre and yarn processing.
He understands the importance of factors such as robustness, productivity and quality to the commercial success of new discoveries.
Mr Atkinson has a deep understanding of yarn structure and insights into how carbon nanotubes can be assembled into structures that will enable the remarkable properties of nanotubes to be exploited more economically
To Texas
“The carbon nanotubes form a conga-line!”
Mr Ken Atkinson, CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering
Mr Atkinson took his concept of twisting carbon nanotubes together into long yarns to the NanoTech Institute, where researchers use catalytic vapour deposition to grow carbon nanotubes in 'forests' - closely aligned fibres, resembling a plantation of bamboo.
‘Their forests have the convenient property that when the nanotubes are pulled from a small section, nearby nanotubes in the forest cling to them, and the group comes away as a net or string of material,’ he said.
‘They form a conga-line!’
The first yarns were produced by hand, but this was too slow, so a method of twisting with a small, high-speed motor was set up.
‘We produce metres of carbon nanotube yarn without the need for binding agents, which usually degrade the electrical properties of the nanotube fibres.’
The key concept Mr Atkinson said ‘is to apply sufficient twist to cause the carbon nanotube structure to self-lock, so the tensile force pulling it apart generates frictional forces that hold it together.’
The future
Nanotube yarn might eventually find applications in high-value commercial products, such as:
Mr Atkinson and his team are working on ways to industrialise the spinning process — dealing with issues such as efficiency, spinning head design and productivity.
They are also working on yarns made from blends of nanotube fibres with polymers.
Find out more about the work CSIRO does in Textiles.
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