Synthesis of composite powders composed of silver and carbon nanotubes by liquid-phase reduction method

Maël Pontoreau (1, 2) , Benjamin Thomas (1) , Emmanuel Le Guen (2) , Christine Bourda (2) , Nada Kraiem (1, 3) , Lisa Andrey (1) , Jean-François Silvain (1, 3)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 Metalor Technologies SAS
3 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

A successful synthesis of composite powders composed of both silver (Ag) particles and multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by liquid-phase reduction methods is reported. Based on previous work on electroless deposition of Ag on MWCNTs and the mixing technique called “modified molecular level mixing”, the novel procedure strongly controls the amount of individualized MWCNTs in the Ag/MWCNTs composite powders with a mass fraction of MWCNTs between 0 and 0.6 wt%. The results show that temperature and the concentration of the reducing agent have a significant impact on the growth of the Ag particles while the MWCNTs concentration influences the nucleation rate of Ag particles during synthesis of Ag/MWCNTs composite powders. Thermogravimetric analysis of the powder synthesized also show a catalytic effect of Ag particles on the oxidation of MWCNTs.

Mots clés: Silver; Multi-walled carbon nanotubes; Composite powder; Liquid-phase reduction; Growth Nucleation

Domaines: Matériaux

Maël Pontoreau, Benjamin Thomas, Emmanuel Le Guen, Christine Bourda, Nada Kraiem, et al.. Synthesis of composite powders composed of silver and carbon nanotubes by liquid-phase reduction method. Nano-Structures & Nano-Objects, 2020, 24, 100622 (9 p.). ⟨10.1016/j.nanoso.2020.100622⟩. ⟨hal-02998545⟩