10.1007/s40097-015-0175-9

Recent developments concerning the dispersion of carbon nanotubes in surfactant/polymer systems by MD simulation

HTML PDF
  • S. Mahmood Fatemi1,
  • Masumeh Foroutan*1,
  1. Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, IR
Cover Image

Published in Issue 09-11-2015

How to Cite

Fatemi, S. M., & Foroutan, M. (2015). Recent developments concerning the dispersion of carbon nanotubes in surfactant/polymer systems by MD simulation. Journal of Nanostructure in Chemistry, 6(1 (March 2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40097-015-0175-9
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

HTML views: 60

PDF views: 114

Abstract

Abstract Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) hold the promise of delivering exceptional mechanical properties and multifunctional characteristics due to their unique physiochemical properties and prospective applications in various nanotechnologies. However, current techniques of CNTs fabrication cannot produce homogenous CNTs, and this prevents the widespread use of CNTs. Ever-increasing interest in applying CNTs in many different fields has led to continued efforts to develop dispersion and functionalization techniques. Techniques for separating bundles of CNTs into homogeneous dispersion are still under development. The preparation of effective dispersions of CNTs presents a major impediment to the extension and utilization of CNTs. CNTs intrinsically tend to bundle and/or aggregate. The prevention of such behavior has been explored by testing various techniques to improve the dispersibility of CNTs in a variety of solvents. There are mainly two approaches to obtain a good quality dispersion; chemical functionalization and physical interactions. The chemical functionalization technique has been found effective, but deteriorates the intrinsic properties of CNTs through the introduction of defects in the wall. Physical blending approaches with the ultrasound and high speed shearing have been proven capable of debundling CNTs and stabilizing individual CNTs while maintaining their integrity and intrinsic properties. Contemporary methods for dispersion of CNTs in aqueous media are discussed and most attention is paid to molecular dynamics simulation techniques and other physical techniques, as well as to the use of various surfactants and polymers.

Keywords

  • Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation,
  • Carbon nanotubes (CNTs),
  • Dispersion,
  • Polymer,
  • Surfactant
HTML PDF

References

  1. De Volder et al. (2013) Carbon nanotubes: present and future commercial applications (pp. 535-539) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1222453
  2. Miao (2011) Electrical conductivity of pure carbon nanotube yarns (pp. 3755-3761) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2011.05.008
  3. Marconnet et al. (2013) Thermal conduction phenomena in carbon nanotubes and related nanostructured materials (pp. 1295-1326) https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.85.1295
  4. Bianco et al. (2011) Making carbon nanotubes biocompatible and biodegradable (pp. 10182-10188) https://doi.org/10.1039/c1cc13011k
  5. Leea et al. (2012) High-performance field emission from a carbon nanotube carpet (pp. 3889-3896) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2012.04.033
  6. Noked et al. (2012) Composite carbon nanotube/carbon electrodes for electrical double-layer super capacitors (pp. 1600-1603) https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201104334
  7. Kruss et al. (2013) Carbon nanotubes as optical biomedical sensors (pp. 1933-1950) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2013.07.015
  8. Rahmanian et al. (2013) Carbon and glass hierarchical fibers: influence of carbon nanotubes on tensile, flexural and impact properties of short fiber reinforced composites (pp. 10-16) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2012.06.025
  9. Heister et al. (2012) Drug loading, dispersion stability, and therapeutic efficacy in targeted drug delivery with carbon nanotubes (pp. 622-632) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2011.08.074
  10. Zhou et al. (2012) Antitumor immunologically modified carbon nanotubes for photothermal therapy (pp. 3235-3242) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.12.029
  11. Liu et al. (2011) Carbon materials for drug delivery and cancer therapy (pp. 316-323) https://doi.org/10.1016/S1369-7021(11)70161-4
  12. Franklin et al. (2012) Sub-10 nm carbon nanotube transistor (pp. 758-762) https://doi.org/10.1021/nl203701g
  13. Tune et al. (2012) Carbon nanotube-silicon solar cells (pp. 1043-1055) https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201200249
  14. Rodrigues et al. (2012) Gold supported on carbon nanotubes for the selective oxidation of glycerol (pp. 83-91) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcat.2011.09.016
  15. Oriňáková and Oriňák (2011) Recent applications of carbon nanotubes in hydrogen production and storage (pp. 3123-3140) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2011.06.051
  16. Sanip et al. (2011) Gas separation properties of functionalized carbon nanotubes mixed matrix membranes (pp. 208-213) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2011.02.003
  17. De las Casas and Li (2012) A review of application of carbon nanotubes for lithium ion battery anode material (pp. 74-85) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2012.02.013
  18. Herrera-Herrera et al. (2012) Carbon nanotubes applications in separation science: a review (pp. 1-30) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2012.04.035
  19. Lota et al. (2011) Carbon nanotubes and their composites in electrochemical applications (pp. 1592-1605) https://doi.org/10.1039/c0ee00470g
  20. Lu et al. (1996) Mechanical damage of carbon nanotubes by ultrasound (pp. 814-816) https://doi.org/10.1016/0008-6223(96)89470-X
  21. Prevoteau et al. (2012) Universally dispersible carbon nanotubes (pp. 19961-19964) https://doi.org/10.1021/ja309029n
  22. Kim et al. (2012) Surface modifications for the effective dispersion of carbon nanotubes in solvents and polymers (pp. 3-33) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2011.08.011
  23. Li et al. (2012) Covalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes with thermoresponsive core cross-linked polymeric micelles (pp. 4698-4706) https://doi.org/10.1021/ma300432c
  24. Tuncel (2011) Non-covalent interactions between carbon nanotubes and conjugated polymers (pp. 3545-3554) https://doi.org/10.1039/c1nr10338e
  25. Jiang et al. (2013) Increased solubility, liquid-crystalline phase, and selective functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotube polyelectrolyte dispersions (pp. 4503-4510) https://doi.org/10.1021/nn4011544
  26. Zhao and Stoddart (2009) Noncovalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (pp. 1161-1171) https://doi.org/10.1021/ar900056z
  27. Calvaresi et al. (2012) Probing the structure of lysozyme–carbon-nanotube hybrids with molecular dynamics (pp. 4308-4313) https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201102703
  28. Tkalya et al. (2012) The use of surfactants for dispersing carbon nanotubes and graphene to make conductive nanocomposites (pp. 225-232) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cocis.2012.03.001
  29. Carvalho and dos Santos (2010) Role of surfactants in carbon nanotubes density gradient separation (pp. 765-770) https://doi.org/10.1021/nn901350s
  30. Tummala et al. (2010) Stabilization of aqueous carbon nanotube dispersions using surfactants: insights from molecular dynamics simulations (pp. 7193-7204) https://doi.org/10.1021/nn101929f
  31. Duan et al. (2011) Dispersion of carbon nanotubes with SDS surfactants: a study from a binding energy perspective (pp. 1407-1413) https://doi.org/10.1039/c0sc00616e
  32. Poorgholami-Bejarpasi and Sohrabi (2015) Role of surfactant structure in aqueous dispersions of carbon nanotubes (pp. 19-28) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fluid.2015.02.032
  33. Uddin et al. (2012) Molecular dynamics simulations of carbon nanotube dispersions in water: effects of nanotube length, diameter, chirality and surfactant structures (pp. 133-144) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2011.07.041
  34. Lin and Blankschtein (2010) Role of the bile salt surfactant sodium cholate in enhancing the aqueous dispersion stability of single-walled carbon nanotubes: a molecular dynamics simulation study (pp. 15616-15625) https://doi.org/10.1021/jp1076406
  35. Sohrabi et al. (2014) Dispersion of carbon nanotubes using mixed surfactants: experimental and molecular dynamics simulation studies (pp. 3094-3103) https://doi.org/10.1021/jp407532j
  36. Angelikopoulos and Bock (2012) The science of dispersing carbon nanotubes with surfactants (pp. 9546-9557) https://doi.org/10.1039/c2cp23436j
  37. Suttipong et al. (2011) Role of surfactant molecular structure on self-assembly: aqueous SDBS on carbon nanotubes (pp. 17286-17296) https://doi.org/10.1021/jp203247r
  38. Xin et al. (2015) Dispersing carbon nanotubes in aqueous solutions of trisiloxane-based surfactants modified by ethoxy and propoxy groups (pp. 163-170) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-014-1636-8
  39. Fatemi and Foroutan (2015) Study of dispersion of carbon nanotubes by triton X-100 surfactant using molecular dynamic simulation (pp. 1905-1913) https://doi.org/10.1007/s13738-015-0665-1
  40. Fatemi and Foroutan (2016) Molecular dynamics simulations studies of triton surfactant-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes surface https://doi.org/10.1166/jap.2016.1251
  41. Fatemi and Foroutan (2013) Structure and dynamics of a nonionic surfactant within a carbon nanotube bundle by molecular dynamics simulation (pp. 41-45) https://doi.org/10.1166/jcsb.2013.1037
  42. Calvaresi et al. (2009) Wrapping nanotubes with micelles, hemimicelles, and cylindrical micelles (pp. 2191-2198) https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.200900528
  43. Wang (2009) Dispersing carbon nanotubes using surfactants (pp. 364-371) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cocis.2009.06.004
  44. Samanta et al. (2014) Conjugated polymer-assisted dispersion of single-wall carbon nanotubes: the power of polymer wrapping (pp. 2446-2456) https://doi.org/10.1021/ar500141j
  45. Gomulya et al. (2013) Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes on demand by polymer wrapping (pp. 2948-2956) https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201300267
  46. Gao et al. (2011) Selective wrapping and supramolecular structures of polyfluorene-carbon nanotube hybrids (pp. 3993-3999) https://doi.org/10.1021/nn200564n
  47. Nish et al. (2007) Highly selective dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes using aromatic polymers (pp. 640-646) https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.290
  48. Rungrotmongkol et al. (2011) Increased dispersion and solubility of carbon nanotubes noncovalently modified by the polysaccharide biopolymer, chitosan: MD simulations (pp. 134-137) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2011.03.066
  49. Yu et al. (2015) Molecular dynamics simulations of orientation induced interfacial enhancement between single walled carbon nanotube and aromatic polymers chains (pp. 155-165) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2015.02.027
  50. Foroutan and Nasrabadi (2010) Investigation of the interfacial binding between single-walled carbon nanotubes and heterocyclic conjugated polymers (pp. 5320-5326) https://doi.org/10.1021/jp100960u
  51. Zhang et al. (2013) Effects of the dispersion of polymer wrapped two neighbouring single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on nanoengineering load transfer (pp. 1714-1721) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2012.09.079
  52. Tallury and Pasquinelli (2010) Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Polymers with Stiff Backbones Interacting with Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (pp. 9349-9355) https://doi.org/10.1021/jp101191j
  53. Mayo et al. (2013) Morphology and dispersion of polycarbazole wrapped carbon nanotubes (pp. 20492-20502) https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ra44136a
  54. Uddin et al. (2011) Molecular dynamics simulations of the interactions and dispersion of carbon nanotubes in polyethylene oxide/water systems (pp. 288-296) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2010.11.056
  55. Lemasson et al. (2011) Selective dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes with specific chiral indices by Poly(N-decyl-2,7-carbazole) (pp. 652-655) https://doi.org/10.1021/ja105722u
  56. Gerstel et al. (2014) Highly selective dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes via polymer wrapping: a combinatorial study via modular conjugation (pp. 10-15) https://doi.org/10.1021/mz400472q
  57. Mohammadi and Foroutan (2013) Mixture of ionic liquid and carbon nanotubes: comparative studies of the structural characteristics and dispersion of the aggregated non-bundled and bundled carbon nanotubes (pp. 2482-2494) https://doi.org/10.1039/c2cp43522e
  58. Fatemi and Foroutan (2015) Recent findings about ionic liquids mixtures obtained by molecular dynamics simulation (pp. 243-253) https://doi.org/10.1007/s40097-015-0155-0
  59. Fu et al. (2001) Defunctionalization of functionalized carbon nanotubes (pp. 439-441) https://doi.org/10.1021/nl010040g
  60. Hamon et al. (2002) Ester-functionalized soluble single-walled carbon nanotubes (pp. 333-338) https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390201281
  61. Yu et al. (2000) Tensile loading of ropes of single wall carbon nanotubes and their mechanical properties (pp. 5552-5555) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.5552
  62. Balasubramanian and Burghard (2005) Chemically functionalized carbon nanotubes (pp. 180-192) https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.200400118
  63. Sainsbury and Fitzmaurice (2004) Templated assembly of semiconductor and insulator nanoparticles at the surface of covalently modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (pp. 3780-3790) https://doi.org/10.1021/cm049151h
  64. Yang et al. (2010) A facile, green, and tunable method to functionalize carbon nanotubes with water-soluble azo initiators by one-step free radical addition (pp. 3286-3292) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2009.12.020
  65. Yang et al. (2006) Synthesis and self-assembly of polystyrene-grafted multiwalled carbon nanotubes with a hairy-rod nanostructure (pp. 3869-3881) https://doi.org/10.1002/pola.21491
  66. Yang et al. (2007) Controlled synthesis and novel solution rheology of hyperbranched poly(urea-urethane)-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (pp. 5858-5867) https://doi.org/10.1021/ma0707077
  67. Yang et al. (2010) Functionalization of carbon nanotubes with biodegradable supramolecular polypseudorotaxanes from grafted-poly(ε-caprolactone) and α-cyclodextrins (pp. 145-155) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2009.10.020
  68. Du et al. (2009) Carbon nanotube enhanced gripping in polymer-based actuators (pp. 7223-7226) https://doi.org/10.1021/jp807707m
  69. Yang et al. (2007) Structures and photoresponsive behaviors of multiwalled carbon nanotubes grafted by polyurethanes containing azobenzene side-chains (pp. 11231-11239) https://doi.org/10.1021/jp0728510
  70. Balamurugan et al. (2014) Effect of functionalization of carbon nanotube on their dispersion in ethylene glycol-water binary mixture—a molecular dynamics and ONIOM investigation (pp. 24509-24518) https://doi.org/10.1039/C4CP03397C
  71. Foroutan and Moshari (2010) Molecular dynamics simulations of functionalized carbon nanotubes in water: effects of type and position of functional groups (pp. 359-365) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physe.2010.08.014
  72. Peng and Cho (2000) Chemical control of nanotube electronics (pp. 57-60) https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/11/2/303
  73. Hirsch (2002) Functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (pp. 1853-1859) https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-3773(20020603)41:11<1853::AID-ANIE1853>3.0.CO;2-N
  74. Lin et al. (2012) Molecular perspective on diazonium adsorption for controllable functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes in aqueous surfactant solutions (pp. 8194-8204) https://doi.org/10.1021/ja301635e