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08-20-2010: Carbon nanotubes can be functionalised on a large scale more cleanly and efficiently than before, improving their commercial viability for engineering, catalysis and bionanotechnology.
Milo Shaffer and colleagues have exploited existing surface oxide defects present in most carbon nanotubes to attach a variety of organic molecules to their surfaces. Shaffer heated the nanotubes to 1000 ºC under an inert atmosphere, which caused the defect groups to desorb leaving reactive surface radicals. When he added functional monomers, such as vinyl compounds, to the activated nanotubes the monomers polymerised, forming oligomers grafted to the nanotube surface.
Surface functionalisation can improve a nanotube’s compatibility with particular environments, such as electrolytes, or can provide a direct function, such as catalytic activity. Conventional functionalisation methods are time-consuming and inconvenient. They also generate a lot of liquid waste, commonly toxic or corrosive.
This thermochemical method can be applied entirely in the gas phase, which simplifies work-up, improves scalability and makes it compatible with existing gas phase processes for commercially producing nanotubes.
Original publication: Robert Menzel, Michael Q. Tran, Angelika Menner, Christopher W. M. Kay, Alexander Bismarck and Milo S. P. Shaffer; "A versatile, solvent-free methodology for the functionalisation of carbon nanotubes"; Chemical Science., 2010.
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