New Delhi, Jul 28 (India Science Wire): You may have experienced vibrations in your car during some
tour or ride. To provide you a smoother ride Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras researchers
have found that the ‘Carbon Nanotube Composites’ contribute in absorbing the vibrations in
automobiles quite efficiently.
and found that they can absorb vibrations in a much better way that any other composite. work in
the field of ‘Carbon Nanotube Composites’ have yielded results that can contribute in reducing the
vibration during your car rides so that you get smooth rides in future.
In an approach to absorb vibrations
“We have done one method of absorbing vibrations by using tube like carbon nano materials or
tubes. We have embedded these particles into the polymers. When the vibration tries to go through
the polymers, the internal structure of carbon nano tube is such that it is doing some internal
movement within itself, that absorbs the energy of that movement, and therefore we get less
vibrations” said Prof. Prathap Haridoss, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT
Madras while speaking with India Science Wire.
The properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) – nanometre-sized molecules made of rolled-up sheets
of carbon atoms – can tremendously improve mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of
polymers. Of the numerous attractive properties of CNT-polymer composites, their vibration
damping properties make them useful in aerospace, automobile and construction industries.
Screenshot of the first cycle of inner tube oscillation
Prof. Haridoss and his collaborators work with a special class of composites called polymer
nanocomposites. The discovery that nanoparticles – particles a hundred thousand times smaller
than the thickness of a sheet of paper – can afford extraordinary properties to polymers, is the basis
of such composites.
“Carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced polymers combine the viscoelastic properties of the polymer
with the interfacial properties of the CNT, resulting in enhanced vibration damping. Thus, CNT
loaded polymers can conceivably give you a smoother ride on your car. The team decided to find
out why,” explained Prof. Haridoss.
The research team used MWCNTs synthesized by different techniques and loaded them into Epoxy
polymers. MWCT’s are made of concentric tubes of carbon and the slide between the layers are
believed to damp vibrations. Naturally, the efficacy of damping would depend on the nature of the
MWCNTs.
For example, MWCNTs prepared by a process called Plasma Arc discharge Method, are straight and
long, while those prepared by Chemical Vapour Deposition are coiled. As can be imagined, the
straight long nanotubes would have better layer slide between walls, and thus better vibration
damping effects than the coiled nanotubes. This was exactly what the researchers observed in their
work.
Further, Prof. Haridoss added, “In order to visualize the damping effects of the two types of
MWCNTs, the researchers performed computational simulation studies. Our simulation studies have
shown beyond doubt that the vibration damping properties in MWCNTs arise from interaction
between atoms that constitute the inner and outer tubes rather than the inter-tube frictional energy
loss.”
The results of this research have been recently published in the journal Nanoscale Advances. The
research team includes Dr Anand Joy, Dr Susy Varughese, Dr Anand K. Kanjarla and Dr S. Sankaran.
(India Science Wire)