Radical scavenging activity of carbon nanotubes: toward appropriate selection of a radical initiator.

Radical scavenging activities are attractive properties not only for scientific fields biomedicine, but for the materials industry. In this study, we report that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can scavenge radicals from organic peroxides, while radicals from azo-type radical initiators exhibit only a few effects from the presence of CNTs. In addition, experimental results suggest the possibility that captured peroxide radicals generate active radical sites on the CNT surface, from which polymerization can take place. These results indicate the importance of selecting an appropriate radical initiator.