O'Driscoll, Luke J. and Welsh, Daniel J. and Bailey, Steven W. D. and Visontai, David and Frampton, Harry and Bryce, Martin R. and Lambert, Colin J. (2015) Reversible thermal switching of aqueous dispersibility of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Chemistry - A European Journal, 21 (10). pp. 3891-3894. ISSN 0947-6539
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Easily reversible aqueous dispersion/precipitation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) has been demonstrated using small-molecule non-ionic pyrene-based surfactants, which exhibit lower critical solution temperature (LCST) phase behaviour. The MWNTs are dispersed by means of non-covalent interactions. The dispersibility can be switched "off" (i.e., MWNTs precipitated) upon heating and switched "on" (i.e., MWNTs re-dispersed) upon cooling and merely swirling the sample at room temperature, that is, under very mild conditions. This effect is also observed under high ionic strength conditions with NaCl in the aqueous phase.