Inspired by cotton spinning craft, donghua university materials science and engineering college of advanced functional materials group (AFMG) researchers using polyphase interfacial reaction, imitate the combed cotton yarn of cotton fiber, compaction and twisting process, the development of inorganic semiconductor nanocrystal materials continuous orientation, assemble, and twisting the new method, The continuous preparation of inorganic semiconductor yarn is realized. The researchers also propose that nanoribbon with high aspect ratio is used as the structural unit to strengthen the interaction force of the basic elements and improve the strength of the semiconductor yarn. In addition, an electrochromic artificial muscle based on inorganic semiconductor yarn was constructed based on the coupling mechanism of double electrical layer absorption/desorption and ion lattice disembedding.
Because the yarn is composed of inorganic nanounits with a high aspect ratio, it can be bent or twisted at room temperature and has good flexibility. Due to the carrier freeze out effect, the resistance of the semiconductor yarn inserted into liquid nitrogen increases by four orders of magnitude, but it still maintains good flexibility. Its tensile strength is also significantly better than that of known pure semiconductor fiber materials. In addition, inorganic semiconductor yarn also has sensitive thermal and light sensitive properties.
After the inorganic semiconductor yarn is assembled through the three-phase interface, the inside of the yarn has holes of different sizes, and the dense nanometer yarn is formed after the fluid twisting. Similar to the structure of cotton thread, the microstructural units of inorganic semiconductor yarn also show a high degree of ordered parallel arrangement. Based on the excellent flexibility and mechanical strength, the inorganic semiconductor yarn can be twisted into a variety of helical yarns, and the helical yarn still has excellent tensile properties at extremely low temperatures when the structural elements are all inorganic materials.
By combining with carbon nanotube yarns, helical yarns can achieve synergistic electrochromic and actuation in ionic liquids. It is expected that the inorganic semiconductor yarn will be widely used in the fields of artificial muscle and camouflage fabric.
source:The research is titled "Scalable Fluid - Spin Nanowire-Based Inorganic Semiconductor Yarns for Electrochromic The title "Actuators" is published in the latest Materials Horizons.