Knotted synthetic polymer or carbon nanotube microfibres with enhanced toughness, up to 1400 J/g

N.M.P. was supported by the ERC (StG Ideas 2011 No. 279985 BIHSNAM, PoC 2013-2 No. 632277 KNOTOUGH, ERC PoC 2015 SILKENE no. 693670), by the EC Graphene Flagship (WP10, No. 604391), and by the Provincia Autonoma di Trento (“Graphene nanocomposites,” No. S116/2012–242637 and reg. delib. No. 2266). E.L. and F.B. were supported by BIHSNAM. N.T.E., P.M. and V.S. are grateful to Nicholas Kienzle, Rachit Malik and Mark Hasse for their suggestions and comments related to this project, and acknowledge the funding agencies: NSF through GOALI grant 1120382 and NSF grant CMMI-07272500 from NCA&T, a DURIP-ONR grant, and ERC supplemental STTR funded by NSF (2010–2012)