Os efeitos da temperatura sobre a oxidação de nanotubos de carbono

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes exhibit remarkable physico-chemical properties which have been exploited for applications ranging from materials science to biology. However, most of the aplications requires the chemical modification of the nanotubes in order to exploit their maximum potential. In this context, the development of protocols for treatment and purification is very important. The purpose of this study is to contribute for the understand on how the change of a particular purification parameter, temperature, affects the physico-chemical properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) during the purification. One gram (1g) of MWNTs (Ctube 100, CNT Co. Ltd., Incheon - South Korea) were subjected to a reflux with nitric acid 9 mol/L for 12 hours at temperatures 25°C, 75°C, 125°C and 175°C. After refluxed, the samples were cooled down in a heat bath, filtered in vacuum condition using a PTFE membrane of 0, 2 µm and washed with deionized water until the neutral pH of the filtrate was reached. Afterwards, the oxidized MWCNTs were dried in vacuum for 48 h. The experimental techniques used in this work to perform the samples characterization provide results that allow to get information from macro and surface characteristics to those associated with the atomic level. Thermal stability was analyzed by TGA measurements, since many of the functional groups created during the treatment are thermally unstable. Oxidation resulting from treatment introduces polar groups on the surface of MWNTs thus creating the electrostatic stability required for a stable dispersion in aqueous medium. The stability was evaluated for each sample by zeta potential measurements. The amount and type of catalytic residues present in the samples before and after treatment were analyzed by means of EDX and UV-VIS. Techniques confocal Raman spectroscopy measurements allowed the specific analysis of the structural defects created on the surface of the tubes as a consequence of oxidation process. It was found that Raman experiments should be performed on may points of the sample in order to access their average properties. The adsorption capacity of the surface of each sample after treatment, were inspected through specific surface area measurements (BET method). By comparing the results of different techniques it was possible to access the effects of temperature on the treatment on the relevant physico-chemical properties thus allowing us to have well characterized samples that will be useful for further studies in biorelated areas.