Morphology of dispersed carbon single-walled nanotubes

✍ Scribed by Dale W. Schaefer; Jian Zhao; Janis M. Brown; David P. Anderson; David W. Tomlin

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 321 KB
• Volume: 375
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/s0009-2614(03)00867-4

✦ Synopsis

Using scattering methods, we determine the morphology of carbon nanotube suspensions over length scales from 1 nm to 50 lm. We find no evidence of rod-like character at any length. Rather, a network structure of aggregated tubes, similar to that seen in dry samples, is found. These observations have significant implications regarding the use of single-walled nanotubes as a composite reinforcing filler since the network structure has significantly lower modulus than fully dispersed tubes. We also show that it is possible to isolate a rod-like fraction from the aggregated suspension using intense sonication, providing a potential route to fully dispersed nanotubes.