Department of Pharmacy, Atish Dipankar University of Science & Technology , Banani, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh.
Department of Chemistry, Rajshahi Univesity , Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Feb 15;9(6):5530-5542. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b12869. Epub 2017 Feb 3.
This is the first study that describes how semiconducting ZnO can act as an alignment agent in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) fibers. Because of the alignment of CNTs through the ZnO nanoparticles linking groups, the CNTs inside the fibers were equally distributed by the attraction of bonding forces into sheetlike bunches, such that any applied mechanical breaking load was equally distributed to each CNT inside the fiber, making them mechanically robust against breaking loads. Although semiconductive ZnO nanoparticles were used here, the electrical conductivity of the aligned CNT fiber was comparable to bare CNT fibers, suggesting that the total electron movement through the CNTs inside the aligned CNT fiber is not disrupted by the insulating behavior of ZnO nanoparticles. A high degree of control over the electrical conductivity was also demonstrated by the ZnO nanoparticles, working as electron movement bridges between CNTs in the longitudinal and crosswise directions. Well-organized surface interface chemistry was also observed, which supports the notion of CNT alignment inside the fibers. This research represents a new area of surface interface chemistry for interfacially linked CNTs and ZnO nanomaterials with improved mechanical properties and electrical conductivity within aligned CNT fibers.
这是第一项描述如何通过半导体氧化锌（ZnO）在碳纳米管（CNTs）纤维中充当定向排列剂的研究。由于 CNTs 通过 ZnO 纳米粒子连接基团的定向排列，纤维内部的 CNTs 被化学键的吸引力均匀地分布成片状束，使得施加的任何机械破坏负载都均匀地分布在纤维内部的每个 CNT 上，从而使它们在机械上能够抵抗破坏负载。尽管这里使用了半导体 ZnO 纳米粒子，但对齐 CNT 纤维的电导率与裸 CNT 纤维相当，这表明通过对齐 CNT 纤维内部的 CNT 传输的总电子流动不会被 ZnO 纳米粒子的绝缘行为所破坏。通过 ZnO 纳米粒子还展示了对电导率的高度控制，其作为 CNT 在纵向和横向方向上的电子运动的桥梁。还观察到了高度有序的表面界面化学，这支持了纤维内部 CNT 对齐的观点。这项研究代表了界面连接的 CNT 和 ZnO 纳米材料的表面界面化学的一个新领域，具有改善的机械性能和对齐 CNT 纤维内的电导率。
