Abstract
A new strain measurement method has been developed by applying the highly sensitive change of electronic conductivity of CNTs. The authors dispersed the CNTs in polyisoprene and applied an uni-axial strain to the CNT-dispersed rubber. It was found that the resistance of the rubber increased monotonically with the increase of the amplitude of the applied tensile strain. The effect of the longitudinal axial strain on the band structures of electrons in CNTs was also analyzed by applying the abmitio calculation (Density functional theory). It was found that the electronic band structure of MWCNTs of changes significantly under the large axial deformation, and thus, their electronic conductivity changes drastically.
