Directional alignment of carbon nanotubes in polymer matrices: Contemporary approaches and future advances

The emergence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has created new opportunities for the fabrication of polymer composites that possess strong potential for a wide spectrum of applications. Numerous significant advances have been attained to date, and more technological challenges await the optimization of a system to fill the gap between expectations and practical performance. Despite this tremendous progress, challenging issues related to directional alignment and CNT assembly within a polymer matrix still remain. This review presents the development of contemporary approaches in the directional alignment of CNTs in polymer matrices, with particular emphasis being placed on the recent progress, exciting breakthroughs and active pursuit in improving CNT alignments through different approaches. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.