Biomedical Engineering Reference
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liquids and SWNTs for the electrochemical functionalization
of SWNTs is that the ionic liquid acts as both a dispersant of
SWNTs and a supporting electrolyte. More important, it
would greatly increase the effective surface area of the SWNT
electrode, and the homogeneous electrochemical functionalization
of the SWNTs performed well even in large quantities. This
is rare for conventional electrochemical functionalization of
SWNTs because the reaction occurs locally on a limited surface of
bundled SWNTs deposited on metal electrodes. N-succinimidyl
acrylate (NSA), as a model monomer, which bears an active ester
group, was ground into a gel of ILs and SWNTs, and the
mixture was placed onto gold electrode. NSA was electrografted
and polymerized onto SWNTs (SWNTs-poly-NSA) by applying
a reduction potential to the electrode (Fig. 4.1b). The active
ester groups in the grafted poly-NSA can be utilized for further
functionalization. For example, by the reaction with glucose
oxidase (GOD), the modified SWNTs with an electrocatalytic
activity toward glucose can be fabricated, which could be utilized
as biosensor toward glucose (Fig. 4.1c). Similarly, Wei et al.
have utilized the same method to functionalize SWNTs with
polyaniline [34].
In addition, ILs could also be used as both solvent and
electrolyte for the electrodeposition of copper [35, 36],
aluminum [37, 38], tantalum [4], platinum [39], silver [40, 41],
gold [40-42], and silicon [43]. For example, Endres et al. have
reported the electrodeposition of nanocrystalline metals and
alloys, such as aluminum from ILs, which previously could not
be electrodeposited from aqueous or organic solutions. This
method enabled the synthesis of aluminum nanocrystals with
average grain sizes of about 10 nm, Al-Mn alloys, as well as
Fe and Pd nanocrystals [4] (as shown in Fig. 4.2).
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