A group of researchers from Russia and Finland featuring Skoltech professor Albert Nasibulin, has developed a novel technique that modifies these properties of Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) films without sacrificing their excellent conductivity. The research has been published in Journal of Physical Chemistry C of the American Chemical Society.
Professor Nasibulin and coworkers have discovered that exposing SWNTs to ozone leads to a significant modification of their properties. Firstly, ozone treatment causes the SWNT films to become hydrophilic. The researchers have demonstrated that this dramatic alteration of wetting behavior enables highly-uniform deposition of inorganic compounds, such as ZnO, onto the SWNT films. Secondly, ozone treatment leads to a four-fold increase in conductivity of SWNTs. This result is a significant improvement over the functionalization and doping techniques demonstrated in literature, since most of previously reported methods caused considerable losses in conductivity of the films.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are small (several nanometers in diameter and usually several microns in length) cylinders composed of carbon atoms. They have been one of the most researched materials in the world due to their exceptional mechanical, electrical and optical properties. Potential applications of SWNTs range from composite materials to supercapacitors to biosensors.
Some of the potential applications of SWNTs require alteration of their properties. For instance, inherent inertness of SWNTs and their superhydrophobicity make their coating with inorganic compounds highly complicated.
The method reported by prof. Nasibulin and his colleagues provides researchers with a facile means to coat inherently inert SWNTs with a wide range of inorganic compounds, while preserving their remarkable conductivity. A thorough investigation of the behavior and properties of ZnO-coated SWNTs in being conducted by Skoltech Laboratory of Nanomaterials and collaborators from Aalto University and St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University.
Media contacts – Alexander Zolotarev, +7 916 686 73 34, , https://www.skoltech.ru
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The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, a suburb of Moscow. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, Skoltech educates global leaders in innovation, advances scientific knowledge, and fosters new technologies to address critical issues facing Russia and the world. Applying international research and educational models, the university integrates the best Russian scientific traditions with twenty-first century entrepreneurship and innovation.
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