Robust, Conducting, and Transparent Polymer Composites Using Surface‐Modified and Individualized Double‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Double‐walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs), consisting of two concentric coaxial tubes, are proposed as the preferable reinforcing filler in polymers. Chemical moieties, which are selectively introduced on the outer tubes, impart the ability to individualize and provide effective anchoring sites for strong bonding with polymers, while the optical properties of the inner tubes of the DWNTs remain unchanged.

A Review of Double-Walled and Triple-Walled Carbon Nanotube Synthesis and Applications

“…Individually-dispersed DWNTs do not perturb transparency, while the non-isolated tubes are randomly aggregated and, thus, deteriorate the visual appearance of the polyimide film, as shown in Figure 12a-c. The chemically-modified and -isolated DWNTs lead to increased modulus, tensile strength and elongational break of polyimide nanocomposites [162], as shown in Figure 12d. The weak IL interactions observed in DWNTs and TWNTs make them excellent candidates for the fabrication of nano-motors and nano-actuators [175][176][177][178].…”

“…Again, CNT growth has been identified as a major drawback in helping to control the species being grown, as well as the density and specific number of walls at the resulting carbon nanotube [157]. Double-walled carbon nanotubes have also been identified as materials with interesting electronic transport properties (such as chirality dependence and inner/outer tube selectivity) and superconductivity [158][159][160][161][162]. Fujisawa et al [158], as shown in Figure 9b, investigated the transport properties in films containing pea pod-derived DWNTs and CVD DWNTs.…”

Double-walled carbon nanotubes: synthesis, structural characterization, and application

“…This section describes (DWCNTs) as a preferable reinforcing filler in polymers, under the conditions that they are individually isolated and have strong bonding strength with the given polymer [58]. Individually isolated DWCNTs were dispersed within a polyimide by combining suitable chemical modification and in-situ polymerization.…”

Transparent and Conductive Polyethylene Oxide Film by the Introduction of Individualized Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes

“…[8][9][10] Secondly, it has been reported that specific types of polymers exhibit the ability to disperse and sort SWNTs. [11,12] Thirdly, a surfactant-induced dispersion of SWNTs in conventional polymers has been reported. [13][14][15][16] to modify the intrinsic properties of polymers.…”