Synthesis Of SWCNTs With W-Fe Cata-lyst And Application Of NiO-SWCNTs In Immunosensing

This thesis consists of two main parts. The topics are focused on theeffect of adding W to Fe catalyst on the synthesis of SWCNTs by arcdischarge in hydrogen atmosphere; production of NiO coated SWCNTs tobuild a sensitive immunosensing platform based on oriented immobiliza-tion of histidine-tagged antibody on NiO-decorated SWCNTs.The first part of the thesis aims to combine iron (Fe) and tungsten(W) as a bimetallic catalyst. We synthesized high-yield single-wall car-bon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with narrow diameter distributions by a hy-drogen-argon arc discharge method. Raman spectra indicate that the di-ameters of SWCNTs prepared using the Fe-W catalysts are about0.5nmsmaller than those using Fe catalyst alone. The transmission electron mi-croscopy and X-ray diffraction show that the SWCNTs prepared by thebimetallic catalyst coexist with few graphite flakes and other amorphouscarbon. At the W content of2-4at.%, tungsten cannot be found in theSWCNT samples. Thus by using a simple two-step purification process,high-purity SWCNT samples can be obtained. We have demonstrated thegrowth mechanism for the high melting metal W-Fe catalyst synthesis ofSWCNTs by arc discharge method.The second part of the thesis aims to introduce the concept ofNiO-decorated SWCNTs substrate as a means to capture histagged anti- body oriented and increase its surface capacity and thereby improve thedetection limit. NiO-decorated SWCNTs modified substrate is carried outto couple the specificity of antibody antigen interactions with the highsensitivity based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) detection. Theimmunosensor sensor based on NiO-SWCNTs demonstrates a signifi-cantly signal with a higher sensitivity in detected CFP-10.