Dissymmetric carbon nanotubes by bipolar electrochemistry

Chompunuch Warakulwit (1, 2) , Thi Nguyen (2) , Jérôme Majimel (3) , Marie-Hélène Delville (3) , Véronique Lapeyre (2) , Patrick Garrigue (2) , Valérie Ravaine (2) , Jumras Limtrakul (1) , Alexander Kuhn (2)

1 Chemistry Department
2 ISM - Institut des Sciences Moléculaires
3 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux

Short carbon nanotubes have been modified selectively on one end with metal using a bulk technique based on bipolar electrochemistry. A stabilized suspension of nanotubes is introduced in a capillary containing an aqueous metal salt solution, and a high electric field is applied to orientate and polarize the individual tubes. During their transport through the capillary under sufficient polarization (30 kV), each nanotube is the site of water oxidation on one end and the site of metal ion reduction on the other end with the size of the formed metal cluster being proportional to the potential drop along the nanotube.

Mots clés: Carbon nanotubes; Electrochemistry; Dissimetry; Nanoparticles

Domaines: Matériaux

Chompunuch Warakulwit, Thi Nguyen, Jérôme Majimel, Marie-Hélène Delville, Véronique Lapeyre, et al.. Dissymmetric carbon nanotubes by bipolar electrochemistry. Nano Letters, 2008, 8 (2), pp.500-504. ⟨10.1021/nl072652s⟩. ⟨hal-00257240⟩