Since the discovery of Carbon Nanotubes in 1991, nanotechnology has come to a new episode. One of the new applications of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is to develop high performance actuators. Nanotube actuation mechanism relies on quantum chemical expansion of graphitic carbon lattice if an additional electrical charge was applied. By electrochemical charging and discharging, a motion of carbon nanotubes can be generated. The phenomenon can be easily demonstrated on a free standing film of SWNT buckypaper in an aqueous electrolyte. In this research, a setup was first established to accurately monitor actuation performance of SWNT buckypaper actuators. From a series of designed experiments, we found that the maximum deformation and applied voltage have a linear relationship. The actuation performance in varied electrolyte was also investigated. For alignment effect of SWNTs, it is the first time that we successfully performed a detailed characterization of the actuation performance of magnetically aligned buckypaper actuators. The aligned buckypaper actuators can demonstrate good response to electrical signal, showing very good repeatability and reversibility. In the experiments of using actuators with different dimensions, we found that larger surface area of SWNT actuators can create more deformation capacity, but it also made the actuator tip deflection unstable. In the high frequency response experiments, all of our SWNT actuator samples demonstrated good response to 1Hz and 10HZ square wave. The tip deflection of SWNT actuators decreased with the increases of electrical frequency. Finally, we developed a SWNT buckypaper/silver paint composite actuator for the first time. It can successfully respond to electrical signals. The results of this research provide essential data and information for further development and optimization of SWNT actuators. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Industrial Engineering in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2005. / July 6, 2005. / Actuator, Swnt / Includes bibliographical references. / Zhiyong Liang, Professor Directing Thesis; Ben Wang, Committee Member; Chuck Zhang, Committee Member; Young-Bin Park, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_176019 |
| Contributors | Tsai, Szu-Yuan (authoraut), Liang, Zhiyong (professor directing thesis), Wang, Ben (committee member), Zhang, Chuck (committee member), Park, Young-Bin (committee member), Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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