Towards the development of carbon nanotube based wires

The excellent electrical and mechanical performance of individual carbon nanotubes combined with their extremely low weight make these structures highly interesting materials for electrical wiring applications. The recent manufacture of macroscopic wire-like assemblies made purely of carbon nanotubes – carbon nanotube fibres – has opened up new prospects in this area. The extensive research on the optimization of the morphology of the fibres indicates that it will be soon possible to produce carbon nanotube fibres exceeding both the electrical and mechanical performance of conductive metals currently used in electrical engineering. To enable the application carbon nanotube fibres as wires in everyday electrical circuits it is necessary to provide them with electrical insulation. This paper proposes, for the first time, a method of insulation of the fibres and analyses the parameters which control the successful development of insulating coating on the surface of these highly porous carbon materials. It is shown that the applied insulation does not compromise either the electrical or mechanical performance of the fibres. The proposed insulation method is inexpensive, easy to integrate into a production process for the carbon nanotube fibres and it can be scaled up.