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Significantly Increased Solubility of Carbon Nanotubes in Superacid by Oxidation and Their Assembly into High‐Performance Fibers
Author(s) -
Lee Jaegeun,
Lee DongMyeong,
Kim YoungKwan,
Jeong Hyeon Su,
Kim Seung Min
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201701131
Subject(s) - solubility , carbon nanotube , materials science , superacid , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , catalysis , organic chemistry , chemistry , engineering
This study demonstrates that small amount of oxygen incorporated into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) during the purification process greatly increases their solubility in chlorosulfonic acid (CSA). Using as‐purchased and unpurified CNT powders, the optimal purification process is established to significantly increase the solubility of CNTs in CSA, and spin CNT fibers with high mechanical strength (0.84 N tex −1 ) and electrical conductivity (1.4 MS m −1 ) from the CNT liquid crystal dope with high concentration of CNTs in CSA. The knowledge obtained here may guide development of a way to dissolve extremely long CNTs at high concentration and thereby to enable production of CNT fibers with ultimate properties.