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Carbon Nanotube Purification

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Nanohybrid Catalyst based on Carbon Nanotube

Part of the book series: Carbon Nanostructures ((CARBON))

Abstract

Purification and functionalization of MWCNTs are challenging, but vital for their effective applications in various fields including CNTs based water purification technologies, catalysis, optoelectronics, biosensors, fuel cells, and electrode arrays. Existing CNT purification techniques often complicated and time-consuming, yielded shortened and curled MWCNTs that are not suitable for applications in certain fields such as membrane technologies, hybrid catalysis, optoelectronics, and sensor developments. Here we heeded the H2O2 synergetic actions with HCl and KOH in purifying and functionalizing pristine MWCNTs. The method (HCl/H2O2) annihilated all amorphous carbons and metal impurities from the pristine MWCNTs with a high purification yield (100%) compared with HCl alone (93.46%) and KOH/H2O2 (3.92%). We probed the findings using TEM, EDX, ATR-IR spectroscope, Raman spectroscope, and TGA analysis. The study is a new avenue for simple, rapid, low cost, and scalable purification of pristine MWCNTs for application in versatile fields.

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  1. Leibniz Institute of Surface Modification, Leipzig, Germany

    Rasel Das

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Das, R. (2017). Carbon Nanotube Purification. In: Nanohybrid Catalyst based on Carbon Nanotube. Carbon Nanostructures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58151-4_3

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