Enhanced electrical conduction in aluminum wires coated with carbon nanotubes

Electrophoretic deposition was used to create SWCNT nanosized coatings on commercial aluminum wires. Electrical measurements showed an increase in the conductivity of about 160%. Due to the semiconductor nature of a fraction of the deposited SWCNTs, the high conductivity of the coated wires did not substantially decrease with increasing temperature (up to 600 K). Instead, increasing temperature and current were observed to affect the arrangement of the CNTs on the substrate, such that a web-like structure of SWCNTs was induced and resulted in further resistivity decrease. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.