Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene - Research and Applications

Researchers have developed a facile yet versatile and effective method for functionalization of carbon nanotubes with nanoparticles by covalent interaction. Densely distributed magnetite nanoparticles (MNP) with a size of ~8 nm have been deposited on the surface of carbon nanotubes (CNT) by covalent interaction, forming hybrid nanostructures. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), FT-IR spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis have been used to study the formation of MNP/CNT nanostructure.

The strategy employed is quite generic and applicable to a variety of nanoparticles. More work is under way to extend this method to attach other nanoparticles (e.g. semiconductor nanoparticles, electrical nanoparticles, bio-nanoparticles, etc.) on the CNTs by choosing different kinds of surface functional groups and surface charges. Therefore, the covalent binding process can be regarded as a general approach to effective functionalization of carbon nanotubes with various nanoparticles for a wide range of potential applications, including in advanced sensing, nanoelectronics, chemical sensing, field-emission displays, nanotribology, cell adhesion/biorecognition investigations, and catalytic systems.