alignment

Specimen alignment plays a critical role in material testing. If a specimen is not properly aligned prior to or during testing, the accuracy and the reliability of test results will be directly affected, and, depending on the method followed, results may not be acceptable. This post covers the effect of specimen misalignment on the test data, main reasons behind axial misalignment, and ways to improve alignment precision in mechanical test setups.

The effect of simultaneous alignment of polyethylene (PE) lamellae and graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) on thermal conductivity (k) of PE-GnP composites is investigated. Measurements reveal a large increase of 1100% in k of the aligned PE-GnP composite using 10 weight% GnPs relative to unoriented pure PE. Rate of increase of k with applied strain for the pure PE-GnP composite with 10 wt% GnP is found to be almost a factor of two higher than the pure PE sample, pointing to the beneficial effect of GnP alignment on k enhancement.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) possess extraordinary electrical and mechanical properties, with many possible applications in electronics and materials science. Dense, horizonally aligned arrays of linearly configured SWNTs represent perhaps the most attractive and scalable way to implement this class of nanomaterial in practical systems. Recent work shows that templated growth of tubes on certain crystalline substrates (e.g. quartz) yields arrays with the necessary levels of perfection, as demonstrated by the formation of devices and full systems on quartz.