Fabrication of spherical CNT skeins formed by self-entangled fibers from hollow type mesoporous silica microcapsules

Various type CNT balls were fabricated using porous hollow microcapsules, and they were characterized by XRD, TEM and N2 adsorption/desorption analysis. The CNT Balls tangled together showed extremely improved thermal and electrical properties as compared to the fibrous CNTs. Notably increased strain values, such as more than 30% strains at fixed stress, with high toughness have resulted in for those entangled CNT skeins. Even though the CNT skeins entangled together with fibrous bundles have been fabricated as a multi wall-type, they could be applied successfully as a DNA separator and highly conducting electrochemical/rheological materials.