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Benign reduction of carbon nanotube agglomerates using a supercritical carbon dioxide process

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Abstract

A method was developed to deagglomerate commercially available multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) bundles while maintaining the carbon nanotube aspect ratio. The process utilizes the rapid expansion of a supercritical carbon dioxide/MWCNT mixture to separate large primary carbon nanotube agglomerates. High levels of deagglomeration of Baytubes® C 150 P and Nanocyl™ NC-7000 MWCNT bundles were observed on the macroscale and nanoscale, resulting in 30-fold and 50-fold decreases in bulk density, respectively, with median agglomerate sizes <8 μm in diameter. These results were obtained while retaining the aspect ratio of the as-received nanomaterial, irrespective of the MWCNT agglomerate morphology. It was found that a temperature and pressure of 40 °C and 7.86 MP resulted in maximum deagglomeration without damage to the MWCNTs. Thermodynamic principles were applied to describe the effect of processing variables on the efficiency of the deagglomeration. These results suggest that combining this process with a composite processing step, such as melt compounding, will result in nanocomposites with enhanced electrical properties.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Bayer Material Science and Nanocyl™ for donating the Baytubes® C150P and NC-7000 MWCNT, respectively. In addition, the authors acknowledge use of the facilities at the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory at Virginia Polytechnic Institute for the TEM and optical images. Finally, the authors would like to thank Dr. Erdogan Kiran for his assistance in the formulation of the pressure and temperature experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    John P. Quigley, Kevin Herrington, Michael Bortner & Donald G. Baird

  2. Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Donald G. Baird

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  1. John P. Quigley
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  2. Kevin Herrington
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  3. Michael Bortner
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  4. Donald G. Baird
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Correspondence to John P. Quigley.

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Quigley, J.P., Herrington, K., Bortner, M. et al. Benign reduction of carbon nanotube agglomerates using a supercritical carbon dioxide process. Appl. Phys. A 117, 1003–1017 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8791-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8791-7

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