High reactivity of carbon nanotubes and fluorinated carbon nanotubes irradiated by Ar + ions

Pristine and fluorinated single‐wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) irradiated by Ar + ion beam with kinetic energy 1 keV have been studied using C K‐edge X‐ray absorption near‐edge spectroscopy (XANES). Theoretical spectra used for interpretation of the experiment were plotted based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations of graphene fragment contained different types of defects (single‐atom vacancy, carbon adatom, oxygen or fluorine functionalized vacancy) within Z  + 1 approximation. Comparison between experimental and theoretical spectra shows that ion irradiation creates vacancies and boundary atoms of defects readily interact with oxygen yielding ether groups mainly.