Abstract
In response to the problem of poor flexibility of common one-dimensional flexible conductors at low temperatures, this paper proposed a one-dimensional flexible conductive composite material with cotton fiber as the substrate and silver-nanowires as the conductive fillers to meet the demands of flexible conductors in low temperature fields such as space exploration, superconductivity, low-temperature biology, etc. Through a creative "bottom-up" fabricating process, by adjusting the amount of filler added and the degree of intertwining between cotton fibers, 1D flexible nanocomposite with good flexibility, conductivity, strength and stability is obtained. After 10,000 times of flexibility tests at liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K), the resistance change of the 1D nanocomposite is less than ± 0.5%, showing excellent flexibility and stability of the material at low temperature environment. A demonstration was then successfully conducted by connecting the 1D nanocomposite to the circuit as the flexible part of the system in simulated working environment (77 K). The system worked well with good stability under repeated bending of the mechanical arm, demonstrating high applying potential of the 1D nanocomposite in the field of low-temperature flexible conductive materials.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 52073294), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFB4000700), the Project of Stable Support for Youth Team in Basic Research Field of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (No. YSBR-017). The authors are highly grateful to Mr. Fan-Ming Zhao for cryogenic mechanical testing.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 52073294), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFB4000700), the Project of Stable Support for Youth Team in Basic Research Field of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (No. YSBR-017).
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S-Z.L. designed and executed the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the draft of the manuscript; G.-W.H. designed the experiments and revised the manuscript; H-M.X. directed the experiments; N.L. discussed the experimental design; M.L. directed the synthesis of Ag-NWs; Y.L. and C-B.Q. contributed in performing the cryogenic experiments; R-X.C. and Y.W. assisted in the experiments.
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Li, SZ., Huang, GW., Li, N. et al. Cotton fiber-based 1D nanocomposite: a new type of flexible wire for cryogenic electrical system. Cellulose 31, 5653–5667 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-024-05974-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-024-05974-x