Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) reinforced polymer composite membranes have been fabricated using the electrospinning technique. Nanofibers with a diameter in the range 50−100 nm were obtained by electrospinning SWNT-filled polystyrene composites. TEM observations revealed incorporation of small SWNT bundles oriented parallel to the nanofiber axis. As-prepared (AP) and ester (EST) functionalized SWNTs have been electrospun with polyurethane (PU) to demonstrate the effect of the chemical functionalization of SWNTs on the mechanical properties of SWNT-reinforced composites. The tensile strength of EST-SWNT-PU membranes is enhanced by 104% as compared to electrospun pure polyurethane membranes, while an increase of only 46% was achieved incorporating AP−SWNT in the polyurethane matrix. The tangent moduli of AP-and EST-SWNT-PU membranes were found to be respectively 215% and 250% higher than the control polyurethane membranes.

The influence of Ni−Y catalyst composition on the bulk scale synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is studied using solution phase near-infrared spectroscopy. We found that a wide range of catalyst concentrations (3−6 atom % Ni and 1−2 atom % Y), allow efficient production of high-purity as-prepared (AP-) SWNT soot. The broad window of acceptable synthetic parameters found in this study suggests that there is an opportunity to scale-up the electric arc (EA) discharge synthesis of SWNTs to the industrial level. Significant deviations of the concentrations of either Ni or Y outside the optimum parameters result in a degradation in the quality and yield of the AP-SWNT soot.

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% Y) is found to enable efficient production of high-purity single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) soot by the electric arc (EA) discharge method. The broad window of acceptable synthetic parameters found in this study suggests that there is an opportunity to scale-up the EA discharge synthesis of SWNTs to the industrial level. Significant deviations of the concentrations of either Ni or Y outside the optimum parameters result in a degradation in the quality and yield of the SWNT soot. -(ITKIS, M. E.; PEREA, D. E.; NIYOGI, S.; LOVE, J.; TANG, J.; YU, A.; KANG, C.; JUNG, R.; HADDON*, R. C.; J. Phys.