Fractal-property correlation of carbon nano-tubes in 3D truss-like network under stress/strain

Abstract

The randomly interconnected 3D carbon nanotube (CNT) sponge possesses the elegant hierarchical truss-like network. Particularly, the overall pattern and architecture of these tubes under certain stress/strain are extremely important for such cellular solids. The complex arrangement/pattern between neighboring nanotubes primarily influences its compressive stability. These inter–tubes bonding strongly influence its deformation characteristics and structural collapse under compression. In present research, the influence of such compressive stress/strain on the rearrangement/alignment of these nanotubes has been investigated through fractal measurement of published micrographs. The analysis of image-texture has also been performed to recognize the configurational-stability and stored-energy of such complex tube-networks as a function of strain. The fractality of CNT tangles are correlated with their orientation, gray-scale fitting parameters of micrographs and mechanical responses of material as a function of compressive deformation.