Wet cryogenic modification of the carbon nanotube assembly inspired by frozen Chinese Doufu recipe

Abstract In this study, inspired by the recipe of frozen Chinese Doufu (bean card), an innovative physical strategy was proposed to tune the microstructure of porous CNT assembly by a wet cryogenic process. During this process, the acetone was penetrated the CNT fiber and cryogenically treated at −196 °C and then recovered to room temperature until the solution evaporated. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images showed the packing structure of CNT fiber rearranged and CNT bundle size increased. Consequently, the tensile strength and toughness of wet-cryo-treated CNT fiber were improved by 24.78% and 88.44% respectively. Moreover, the gauge factor of the strain sensitivity at initial strain (