Synthesis Of A Liquid Like Carbon Nanotubes And Study On Their Structure And Character

In this paper, we developed a kind of functionalized carbon nanotubes that exhibit liquidlike behavior in the absence of diluents or solvent. The liquidlike carbon nanotubes were synthesized by attaching a flexible chains PEG-substituted tertiary amine onto carbon nanotubes. Then we further researched the influence of the time for oxidized to the property of liquidlike carbon nanotube.1. We successfully synthesized a new kind of carbon nanotube derivatives based on three-step process, which included irradiation, oxidation, ionization, and through a series of test we approved that the new kind of carbon nanotube derivatives possess amphiphilic properties and are dispersible in both aqueous and organic media, and also exhibit liquidlike behavior in the absence of a solvent.2. The flexible chains of PEG-substituted tertiary amine were attached both on the port and sideway of carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube derivatives contain 76.3 mass percent of PEG-containing organic modifier, and 21.9 mass percent of carbon nanotubes. Because of high level of PEG-containing organic modifier, the viscosity of derivatives became lower with higher temperature. Also, the derivatives underwent a solid-to-liquid transition with the melting temperature at 4.516℃, and crystallization temperature at -15.852℃.3. With the further research on the time of oxidation, we found that the length the carbon nanotubes became shorter and shorter with extending the time of oxidation, from micron at the beginning to nanometer in the end, however, the fabric of carbon nanotubes yet destroyed. At the same time, with the prolonging of the time of oxidation, the atom percent of the O element became more and more.4. The dissolvability testing for the derivatives indicated that the solubility intensified with the prolonging of the time of oxidation, from 3.17mg/ml increasing to 4.58mg/ml.5. The Dynamic mechanical property analysis indicated that the carbon nanotubes derivatives which oxidized for 6h, 10h, 14h exhibited liquidlike behavior, however, the derivatives that oxidized for 18h exhibited solidlike behavior below 56.7℃, and exhibited liquidlike behavior above 56.7℃.6. The Viscosity analysis of PEG-MWNTs with different oxidation time indicated that with the oxidation time prolonging, the content of PEG tail became higher, the influence of the temperature to the viscosity became weaker. At the same time, the viscosity became lower with the length of the MWNTs becoming short.