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Nanographite Impurities Dominate Electrochemistry of Carbon Nanotubes
Author(s) -
Ambrosi Adriano,
Pumera Martin
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201001584
Subject(s) - carbon nanotube , overpotential , materials science , graphite , electrochemistry , impurity , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , redox , amorphous carbon , carbon fibers , catalysis , electrode , amorphous solid , chemistry , composite material , organic chemistry , metallurgy , composite number , engineering
Junk does the work : The observed heterogeneous electron‐transfer (HET) rate of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) materials is comparable to that of graphite only because CNT materials contain large quantities of nanographite impurities. When pure CNTs are used, the observed HET rate is actually significantly lower than that of graphitic materials. In other words, most of the electrochemical activity of CNTs is due to the presence of the nanographite impurities contained within them.