Continuous Fracture Mediated Tension Behaviors of Silicone–Carbon Nanotube Laminated Structure

Abstract

In this work, we have studied the uniaxial tension behaviors of the silicone–carbon nanotube (CNT) laminated structure (SCLS) with the load capacity of the CNT film comparable to that of silicone rubber, based on which a theoretical model is proposed to explore the underlying mechanism. The uniaxial tension behaviors of SCLS can be clearly divided into three stages corresponding to the uniform deformation of silicone rubber and CNT film, continuous fracture of CNT film, and uniaxial tension of silicone rubber, respectively. A zigzag plateau stress is observed in stage II. Indeed, the CNT film can act as a pinning ligament to constrain the deformation of silicone rubber, while its continuous fracture can gradually release the deformability of silicone rubber which is beneficial to increase the toughness of SCLS. By considering the in-plane tension stress of the CNT film and interface shear stress transfer, a continuous fracture and pinning model is proposed which can describe the uniaxial tension behaviors of SCLS very well. The results presented herein may shed useful insights for the design and optimization of the film-substrate based stretchable electronics.