Example 4
Although example 4 is provided with regard to copper, it should be understood that aspects herein are not limited as such, and any metal can be used instead of, or in addition to copper.
In this example, a structure comprises a thread infused with copper by electroplating to create a substrate, which can then optionally be further coated with CNT and infused. In several embodiments, the CNT thread includes a metal core.
The carbon nanotube thread can be, for example, floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition grown and formed, pulled form VACNT forests, etc. radially from the substrate, as discussed above.
More carbon nanotubes can be grown radially aligned using NAHF-X IP or deposited by methods such electrophoresis, e.g., as described more fully herein.
An indefinite number of identical concentric layers can be built up until the wire is at a desired diameter or ratio of copper to carbon.
Additionally, in some embodiments, the finished wire can be further mechanically drawn down to resize, reshape, refine, alter, combinations thereof, etc., the properties of the wire.
In some embodiments, multiple wires can be combined into a finished cable or further carbon nanotube coatings and copper electroplating can continue.
