Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Surface treatment of carbon
nanotubes using plasma technology
B. RUELLE, C. BITTENCOURT andP. DUBOIS,
University of Mons and Materia Nova Research Centre, Belgium
Abstract: The chapter begins by discussing carbon nanotube (CNT)
surface chemistry and solution-based functionalization. It then reviews
promising alternative ways to modify the CNT surface through plasma
processes. Plasma treatments have the advantage of being non-polluting
and provide a wide range of grafted functional groups, depending on the
plasma parameters such as power, gases used, duration of treatment and
gas pressure. However, the interaction of high energy particles with the
CNT surface can induce damage in the CNT structure. A plasma
post-discharge treatment, which can prevent the degradation of CNTs,
is presented.
Key words: carbon nanotubes, functionalization, plasma, post-discharge
treatment.
Note: This chapter is adapted from Chapter 2 'Surface treatment of
carbon nanotubes via plasma technology' by B. Ruelle, C. Bittencourt
and P. Dubois, originally published in Polymer-carbon nanotube
composites: preparation, properties and applications, ed. T. McNally and
P. Po
¨
tschke, Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2011, ISBN: 978-1-84569-
761-7.
14.1
Introduction
Since their observation by Iijima (1991), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have
attracted the attention of many researchers due to their outstanding
properties (Thostenson et al., 2001). Their unique physical properties result
from their structure, which at atomic scale can be thought of as a hexagonal
