Double-walled carbon nanotube dispersion via surfactant substitution

Vitaliy Datsyuk (1) , Périne Landois (1) , Juliette Fitremann (2) , Alain Peigney (1) , Anne-Marie Galibert (1) , Brigitte Soula (1) , Emmanuel Flahaut (1)

1 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux
2 IMRCP - Interactions moléculaires et réactivité chimique et photochimique

A new approach for the stabilisation of double-walled carbon nanotubes in aqueous media was developed. A low molecular weight surfactant was used in the first stage for the debundling of the nanotubes followed by substitution with a higher molecular weight surfactant or non-ionic surfactants. Dispersions were characterized by optical density measurements, SEM and DLS. The presence of remaining low molecular weight surfactant was investigated by FT-IR. Double walled carbon nanotube dispersions showed good dispersion stability and non-detectable amounts of the initial surfactant, which was completely removed. Such a method could be useful for preparation of stable aqueous dispersions of carbon nanotubes with low concentration of surfactants, which is especially important for toxicity studies.

Mots clés: Carbon nanotube; Surfactant

Domaines: Matériaux

Vitaliy Datsyuk, Périne Landois, Juliette Fitremann, Alain Peigney, Anne-Marie Galibert, et al.. Double-walled carbon nanotube dispersion via surfactant substitution. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2009, 19 (18), pp.2729 -2736. ⟨10.1039/b814122n⟩. ⟨hal-03566149⟩