Lightweight, flexible, high-performance carbon nanotube cables made by scalable flow coating
Coaxial cables for data transmission are ubiquitous in telecommunications, aerospace, automotive, and robotics industries. Yet, the metals used to make commercial cables are unsuitably heavy and stiff. These undesirable traits are particularly problematic in aerospace applications, where weight is at a premium and flexibility is necessary to conform with the distributed layout of electronic components in satellites and aircraft. The cable outer conductor (OC) is usually the heaviest component of modern data cables; therefore, exchanging the conventional metallic OC for lower weight materials with comparable transmission characteristics is highly desirable. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have recently been proposed to replace the metal components in coaxial cables; however, signal attenuation was too high in prototypes produced so far. Here, we fabricate the OC of coaxial data cables by directly coating a solution of CNTs in chlorosulfonic acid (CSA) onto the cable inner dielectric. This coating has an electrical conductivity that is approximately 2 orders of magnitude greater than the best CNT OC reported in the literature to date. In conclusion, this high conductivity makes CNT coaxial cables an attractive alternative to commercial cables with a metal (tin-coated copper) OC, providing comparable cable attenuation and mechanical durability with a 97% lower component mass.