| AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Applied Surface Science | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session AS+NS-TuA |
| Session: | Nanoparticle and Nanoscale Surface Chemistry I |
| Presenter: | J.J. Pireaux, University of Namur (FUNDP), Belgium |
| Authors: | J.J. Pireaux, University of Namur (FUNDP), Belgium X. Gillon, University of Namur (FUNDP), Belgium S. Abou Rich, University of Namur (FUNDP), Belgium A. Felten, University of Namur (FUNDP), Belgium |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The intrinsically inert nature of the pristine carbon nanotube (CNT) surface is a severe constraint for several applications such as fabrication of composites in which the CNTs should be homogeneously dispersed in a matrix. To overcome this problem, functionalisation of the CNT surface has been attempted with different methods (chemical or electrochemical modification, polymer grafting, fluorination…). Our most recent approach consists in the use of Inductive RF plasma (13.56 MHz) to polymerize a monomer (acrylic acid or styrene) onto the CNT surface. But when characterizing the composition of such a nano-material with a conventional technique like X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, one faces the problem that typically a sample area of some µm2 or even mm2 is probed: this prevents the analysis of an individual modified nanostructure . Moreover, signal originating from impurities present on the nanotube (amorphous carbon, onion-like particles, catalysts residues) cannot be avoided. Clearly, one would like to be capable to carry out the analysis at much higher spatial resolution. In this context, Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy (STXM) has recently been shown to be one of the most appropriate techniques to study carbon nanotubes since it combines both spectroscopy and microscopy with a spatial resolution better than 30 nm: STXM allows indeed to study isolated nanotubes [1,2,3]. In this report, electronic, structural and chemical properties of pristine and plasma treated isolated multiwall carbon nanotubes were studied with STXM at beamline 5.3.2. from the Advanced Light Source (ALS), Berkeley (CA). Analysis of the C1s near-edge absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) was performed showing clear differences between grafted polystyrene, polyacrylic acid and the carbon nanotubes. Chemical mapping at the nanoscale was performed, highlighting polymer rich regions on the nanotubes.
This work is financially supported by the Nano2Hybrids project (EC-STREP-033311) and the RCO Marshall plan.
1. A. Felten et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 093123(2006).
2. A. Felten et al. Nano Lett., 7, 2435(2007).
3. E. Najafi et al. Small, 4 (12), 2279 (2008).