Energy dissipation capability and impact response of carbon nanotube buckypaper: A coarse-grained molecular dynamics study

Carbon nanotube (CNT) buckypaper, a randomly non-woven fibrous film structure, has enjoyed its popularity in the sensor, actuator, filtration, and distillation devices owing to its exceptional mechanical and electrical properties. However, there is no report aimed at unraveling the fundamental mechanism of its energy-absorption capability under high-velocity impact despite its extraordinary frequency- and temperature-invariant viscoelastic properties. To bridge this gap, here coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations are implemented to investigate effects of the external impact energy, the density of the buckypaper, and the length of individual CNTs on energy dissipation capability and dynamic response of the buckypaper under high-velocity impacts. Simulation results indicate that within its deformation limit the buckypaper possesses extremely high kinetic energy dissipation efficiency. The critical impact energy related to the deformation limit of the buckypaper tightly depends on the impact velocity since the same impact energy with a larger impact velocity yields less compression. The energy dissipation capability and impact response of the buckypaper are demonstrated to be independent of the length of individual SWCNTs. Overall, owing to the remarkable energy dissipation capability and flexibility of the buckypaper, it can be regarded as a promising candidate for energy dissipation.