Methods for Nondestructive Dispersing of Carbon Nanomaterials in Water
AssigneeUniversity of Maryland, College Park
InventorsYuHuang WANG, Peng WANG, Mijin KIM, Chiyu ZHANG
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Abstract
A method termed “superacid-surfactant exchange” (S2E) for the dispersion of carbon nanomaterials in aqueous solutions. This S2E method enables nondestructive dispersion of carbon nanomaterials (including single-walled carbon nanotubes, double-walled carbon nanotubes, multi-wall carbon nanotubes, and graphene) at rapidly and at large scale in aqueous solution without a requirement for expensive or complicated equipment. Dispersed carbon nanotubes obtained from this method feature long length, low defect density, high electrical conductivity, and in the case of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes, bright photoluminescence in the near-infrared
Claims24
1-23. (canceled)
A method for dispersion of a carbon nanomaterial in aqueous solution which comprises:
- adding the carbon nanomaterial that is dissolved in a superacid acid, into a basic aqueous solution containing a steroid acid surfactant such that the carbon nanomaterials are dispersed in aqueous solution.
The method of clam 39, wherein the second surfactant is a cationic surfactant, or an anionic surfactant.
An aqueous dispersion of individually dispersed carbon nanotubes wherein the carbon nanotubes have average length ranging from 1-10 micron, a concentration in the dispersion of 1 mg/mL or higher.
A carbon nanotube clay comprising individualized carbon nanotubes and a surfactant comprising a steroid acid salt wherein the carbon nanotube to surfactant weight ratio is largely individualized carbon nanotubes and surfactant composite that has a carbon nanotube to surfactant weight ratio larger than 0.1 and that readily dissolves in water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.