Fabrication and Application of Nanofiber Ribbons and Sheets and Twisted and Non-Twisted Nanofiber Yarns
First Claim
1. A process for producing a yarn comprising nanofibers, the process comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a pre-primary assembly, wherein the pre-primary assembly comprises a an array of substantially parallel nanofibers;
(b) drawing from the pre-primary assembly to provide a primary assembly of the nanofibers having an alignment axis about which twisting can occur, wherein the primary assembly is selected from the group consisting of (i) an aligned array and (ii) an array that is converging toward alignment about the alignment axis; and
(c) twisting about the alignment axis of said primary assembly to produce a twisted yarn.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is directed to methods of making nanofiber yarns. In some embodiments, the nanotube yarns comprise carbon nanotubes. Particularly, such carbon nanotube yarns of the present invention provide unique properties and property combinations such as extreme toughness, resistance to failure at knots, high electrical and thermal conductivities, high absorption of energy that occurs reversibly, up to 13% strain-to-failure compared with the few percent strain-to-failure of other fibers with similar toughness, very high resistance to creep, retention of strength even when heated in air at 450° C. for one hour, and very high radiation and UV resistance, even when irradiated in air.
1052 Citations
478 Claims
-
1. A process for producing a yarn comprising nanofibers, the process comprising the steps of:
-
(a) providing a pre-primary assembly, wherein the pre-primary assembly comprises a an array of substantially parallel nanofibers; (b) drawing from the pre-primary assembly to provide a primary assembly of the nanofibers having an alignment axis about which twisting can occur, wherein the primary assembly is selected from the group consisting of (i) an aligned array and (ii) an array that is converging toward alignment about the alignment axis; and (c) twisting about the alignment axis of said primary assembly to produce a twisted yarn. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 26, 43, 63, 64, 65, 66, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 128, 144, 145, 148, 470, 471, 472, 473, 474, 475, 476, 477, 478)
-
-
2-3. -3. (canceled)
-
7-12. -12. (canceled)
-
14. (canceled)
-
19-21. -21. (canceled)
-
23-25. -25. (canceled)
-
27-42. -42. (canceled)
-
44-62. -62. (canceled)
-
67-88. -88. (canceled)
-
94. (canceled)
-
100-127. -127. (canceled)
-
129-143. -143. (canceled)
-
146-147. -147. (canceled)
-
149-469. -469. (canceled)
Specification