image: Two-dimensionally, hierarchically buckled sheath-core fibers. A) An elastic conducting fiber is fabricated by wrapping carbon nanotube sheets around a stretched rubber core. B) Illustration of the hierarchical buckles that form in the nanotube sheath when the stretch is partially released from the 1,400 percent strain applied during fabrication. C) and D) Scanning electron microscope images of the buckling for a sheath-core fiber that is oriented horizontally. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the July 24, 2015, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Z. Liu at University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas, and colleagues was titled, "Hierarchically buckled sheath-core fibers for superelastic electronics, sensors, and muscles." view more
Credit: [Credit: The Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute]