Nano-architected metamaterials: Carbon nanotube-based nanotrusses

5 years ago

Nano-architected metamaterials: Carbon nanotube-based nanotrusses

In this paper, we propose a novel face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice-like nanotruss with carbon nanotubes and newly designed 12-terminal junctions as building blocks. Using molecular dynamics simulation, both thermal and mechanical properties of this novel nano-architected metamaterials are systematically predicted and a comparison study is conducted between fcc and simple cubic lattice-like nanotrusses. Our findings demonstrate that the fcc lattice-like nanotrusses have relatively low thermal conductivity

κ = 1.24 \sim 3.31 W / (m \cdot K)

and reasonably high specific modulus

M = 49.79 \sim 114.15 M N \cdot m / k g

in all three directions ([100], [110], [111]), for a material density in the range of

ρ = 0.23 \sim 0.82 g / c m^{3}

. Depending on the specific requirements in material design, the widely ranged Young's modulus E and thermal conductivity κ of nano-architected metamaterials can be tuned by changing the tube length. All the aforementioned advantages can be maintained at a high temperature up to

3000 K

, which indicates fcc lattice-like nanotrusses are superior to most existing mechanically robust thermal insulators. To showcase the scale independency of the unprecedented properties of the proposed nano-architected metamaterials, thermal and mechanical properties of their macroscopic counterparts are studied using standard mechanics multiscale homogenization.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0008622318300915