Interactions of gold nanoparticles with the interior of hollow graphitized carbon nanofibers

Interactions of free-standing gold nanoparticles and hollow graphitized nanofibers in colloidal suspension are investigated, revealing the first example of the controlled arrangement of nanoparticles inside nano-containers, as directed by their internal structure. The ordering is highly effective for small gold nanoparticles whose sizes are commensurate with the height of graphitic step-edges in the graphitized carbon nanofibers and is less effective for larger gold nanoparticles. Studies aimed at understanding the role of the organic-solvent surface tension, employed for the filling experiments, demonstrate that gold nanoparticles become preferentially anchored into the hollow graphitized carbon nanofibers under a mixture of pentane/CO(2) in supercritical conditions. It is shown that a three-step cleaning procedure enables effective removal of gold nanoparticles adsorbed on the exterior surface of graphitized carbon nanofibers, while ordered arrays of encapsulated nanoparticles are retained.     

Decorating carbon nanotubes with Cobalt nanoparticles

A magnetic composite of multiwalls carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) decorated with Cobalt nanoparticles was synthesized successfully by a simple chemical precipitation and deoxidization method. The composite was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The pattern of XRD indicated that MWNTs and Cobalt nanoparticles coexisted in the composite. The TEM images revealed that the Cobalt nanoparticles were distributed on the surface of the MWNTs, with the size ranging from 5 to 15 nm. The hysteresis loops of the decorated MWNTs were measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), the ferromagnetic signature emerged with the saturated magnetization of 5.8 emu/g, and the coercive of 310 Oe.     

纳米镍颗粒填充碳纳米管的制备与磁性能

采用自制的实验装置, 通过阳极弧放电等离子体技术成功制备了Ni纳米颗粒填充的碳纳米管, 利用高分辨透射电子显微镜(HRTEM)、 XRD、 TEM、 X射线能量色散分析谱仪(XEDS)和振动样品磁强计(VSM)等测试手段对样品的化学成分、 形态、 微观结构和磁性能进行了表征。实验结果表明, 采用本文中实验方法能获得大量被纳米金属颗粒填充的碳纳米管, 其内部填充物为面心立方(FCC)结构的纳米Ni颗粒, 外围薄层为石墨碳层。碳纳米管的外径为30~40 nm, 壁厚5~8 nm, 内部填充的纳米颗粒呈球形和椭球形, 粒径均匀, 在管腔内不连续分布。产物具有顺磁特性, 矫顽力是78 Oe, 饱和磁化强度是33 enu/g。     

3-D characterization of CdSe nanoparticles attached to carbon nanotubes

The crystallographic structure of CdSe nanoparticles attached to carbon nanotubes has been elucidated by means of high resolution transmission electron microscopy and high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography. CdSe rod-like nanoparticles, grown in solution together with carbon nanotubes, undergo a morphological transformation and become attached to the carbon surface. Electron tomography reveals that the nanoparticles are hexagonal-based with the (001) planes epitaxially matched to the outer graphene layer. Electronic Supplementary Material  Supplementary material is available for this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

Metal nanoparticles and related materials supported on carbon nanotubes: methods and applications

Carbon nanotubes are one of the most intensively explored nanostructured materials. In particular, carbon nanotubes are unique and ideal templates onto which to immobilize nanoparticles allowing the construction of designed nanoarchitectures that are extremely attractive as supports for heterogeneous catalysts, for use in fuel cells, and in related technologies that exploit the inherent 'smallness' and hollow characteristics of the nanoparticles. Here we overview the recent developments in this area by exploring the various techniques in which nanotubes can be functionalized with metals and other nanoparticles and explore the diverse applications of the resulting materials.     

Effects of carbon nanotubes additions on flash ignition characteristics of Fe and Al nanoparticles

The influences of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) additions on the flash ignition characteristics of Iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) nanoparticles (NPs) were presented. CNTs can be used as the additive to these metal nanoparticles for improving the flash ignition and burning processes. Different mass fractions of CNTs additions were considered. The mixture of Al and CNTs could combust in air with obvious giant flame, whereas the mixture of Fe and CNTs combusted under a relative stable condition with slight red light. The temperature distributions were measured using non-contact optical method and showed that Al NPs mixed with CNTs were burning at a higher temperature level than Fe NPs. Although different mass fractions of CNTs cannot significantly change the overall flash ignition phenomenon, CNTs additions influenced the minimum ignition energy (MIE) of mixtures. The appropriate content of CNTs addition can decrease the Fe NPs MIE significantly. However, the Al NPs MIE decreased all along with the increase of CNTs content. The micro- and nano- structures of Fe and Al NPs with CNTs additions before and after ignitions were examined by scanning electron microscope and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the special thermal conductive characteristics of CNTs and the cross-connected features for metal particles with CNTs caused the enhancement of flash ignition.     

Self-aligned sub-10-nm nanogap electrode array for large-scale integration

A novel approach to creating a gap on the nanometer scale between two adjacent electrodes of the same or different metals is described. The gap size can be well controlled through sidewall coverage in a self-aligned manner and it can be tuned from 60 nm down to 5 nm with high reproducibility. This technique is fully compatible with traditional microfabrication technology and it is easily implemented to fabricate a nanogap electrode array for integration purposes. An array of short-channel single-walled carbon nanotube field-effect transistors is demonstrated.     

Effect of Co and Ni nanoparticles formation on carbon nanotubes growth via PECVD

The effect of cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni) nanoparticle catalysts on the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were studied, where the CNTs were vertically grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) method. The growth conditions were fixed at a temperature of 700 °C with a pressure of 1000 mTorr for 40 minutes with various thicknesses of sputtered metal catalysts. Only multi-walled carbon nanotubes are present from the growth as large average diameter of outer tube (～10–30 nm) were measured for both of the catalysts used. Experimental results show that high density of CNTs was observed especially towards thicker catalysts layers where larger and thicker nanotubes were formed. The nucleation of the catalyst with various thicknesses was also studied as the absorption of the carbon feedstock is dependent on the initial size of the catalyst island. The average diameter of particle size increases from 4 to 10 nm for Co and Ni catalysts. A linear relationship is shown between the nanoparticle size and the diameter of tubes with catalyst thicknesses for both catalysts. The average growth rate of Co catalyst is about 1.5 times higher than Ni catalyst, which indicates that Co catalyst has a better role in growing CNTs with thinner catalyst layer. It is found that Co yields higher growth rate, bigger diameter of nanotube and thicker wall as compared to Ni catalyst. However, variation in Co and Ni catalysts thicknesses did not influence the quality of CNTs grown, as only minor variation in I_G/I_D ratio from Raman spectra analysis. The study reveals that the catalysts thickness strongly affects not only nanotube diameter and growth rate but also morphology of the nanoparticles formed during the process without influencing the quality of CNTs.     

Intrinsic ion transport of highly charged sub-3-nm boron nitride nanotubes

Debate regarding the transport mechanisms of water and ions in highly charged one-dimensional (1D) nanochannel continues because of a lack of available experimental data. Here, we present a nanofluidic platform consisting of ≈2.7-nm-diameter boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) as a model system, and report the experimental ion transport in these sub-3-nm BNNTs. We elucidate that strong electrostatic interactions between the highly charged tube walls and ions, stemming from the high surface-charge density (378 mC/m²) of BNNTs, play important roles in defining the ion transport mechanism in BNNT pores. Experimental analysis of ion transports supported by numerical the Donnan steric pore model with dielectric exclusion (DSPM-DE) and Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek (DLVO) model elucidate the relationship of the ionic charge density and surface-charge density of the BNNT wall to electrostatic interaction, steric, and dielectric effects. We also demonstrate that BNNTs exhibit higher NaCl separation (≈90%) than commercial reverse-osmosis (≈80%) and nanofiltration (≈60%) membranes under the same experimental conditions, despite having a larger pore size. Our results establish design criteria for developing highly efficient ion-selective membranes for various practical applications.     

Fabrication of a room temperature hydrogen sensor based on thin film of single-walled carbon nanotubes doped with palladium nanoparticles

A new sensor for the detection of hydrogen at parts per million (ppm) levels was fabricated by coating a thin film of palladium-doped activated single-walled carbon nanotube on the inner wall of a glass tube. The response of the sensor was based on the changes in the impedance of the sensor upon the adsorption of hydrogen molecules. The linear dynamic range of the sensor was from 1 to 50?ppm. The relative standard deviation of six replicate analyses of 5?ppm of H₂ was 2.1% and the limit of detection was 0.73?ppm for H₂ species. Humidity, methane and hydrogen sulphide did not have any serious effect on hydrogen recognition. Also, no interfering effect was observed when 20-fold excess (mass/mass) of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide was present with hydrogen.     

多壁碳纳米管负载镁掺杂氧化锌纳米颗粒的研究

利用醋酸锌和醋酸镁为原料,无水乙醇为溶剂,草酸为沉淀剂,通过共沉淀法和后续热处理实现多壁碳纳米管表面负载镁掺杂氧化锌纳米颗粒,并使用X射线衍射仪、扫描电子显微镜、透射电子显微镜和紫外吸收光度计研究复合材料的形貌和光学性能。电子显微镜结果表明,在450℃热处理下,多壁碳纳米管表面能够均匀地负载镁掺杂氧化锌纳米颗粒,其颗粒粒径大约为10～20nm。紫外吸收光谱结果说明,镁掺杂显著地提高多壁碳纳米管/氧化锌复合材料的紫外吸收性能,而且其紫外吸收峰向短波方向蓝移达22nm。     

An efficient method for decoration of the multiwalled carbon nanotubes with nearly monodispersed magnetite nanoparticles

A one-pot method has been developed to prepare magnetite nanoparticles decorated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by thermal decomposition of iron chloride on CNTs templates in diethylene glycol. The morphological and structural characterizations indicate that magnetite nanoparticles are coated on the surfaces of the CNTs to form CNT-based nanocomposites. The density of magnetite nanoparticles on CNTs could be easily tuned by adjusting the weight ratio of iron chloride to CNTs. Magnetic measurements showed that the nanocomposites are superparamagnetic at room temperature and the magnetic properties of the samples can also be tuned by adjusting preparing conditions. The nanocomposites can be readily dispersed in water to form a stable solution and can be manipulated using an external magnetic field. As-synthesized nanocomposites may have potential applications in target–drug delivery, detection and separations, and in clinical diagnosis.     

Development and evaluation of fluorescent gold nanoparticles

Objective: It is difficult to identify the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) intracellularly due to their non-fluorescent nature. Although gold can quench the fluorescence of any fluorophore, hence it is also difficult to combine gold with a fluorophore such as a semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). The aim of this study was to prepare a single fluorescent stable AuNPs combined with QDs (QDs-Au-NPs) which can be easily detected intracellularly.

Methods: QDs-Au-NPs were prepared via a simple one-step process through controlling the spacing between them using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as space linker in the form of PEGylated QDs. Furthermore, the applicability of this system was evaluated after coating the particles with somatostatin citrate, SST, to active target somatostatin receptors (SSTRs), and identification of the internalized particles via confocal laser scanning spectroscopy.

Results: The results showed that the produced Au shell has a thickness of 2.0?±?0.2?nm and QDs-Au-NPs showed the same fluorescence intensity compared to the unmodified QDs. Additionally, a stable monodisperse QDs-Au-NPs coated with SST were prepared after coating with 11-Mercaptoundecanoic acid. Moreover, cellular uptake study in Human Caucasian breast adenocarcinoma cell lines showed that QDs-Au-SST-NPs could be detected easily using the confocal microscope. In addition, they showed a significant (p?≤?.05) internalization per cell compared to untreated QDs-Au-NPs as detected by flow cytometry.

Conclusion: It could be concluded that the produced QDs-Au-NPs has a strong fluorescence property like QDs which enable them to be easily detected after cells internalization.     

Dispersion of metal nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes with few surface oxygen functional groups

Homogeneous dispersion of metal oxide nanoparticles was achieved on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) even with a very small amount of surface oxygen functional groups (SOFGs) aided by using ethylene glycol (EG) and sodium hydroxide during the process. Similar particle size distributions were obtained for iron deposited on CNTs containing various amounts of SOFGs. We proposed that formation of hydrogen bonds between EG on the CNT surface and sodium hydroxide is likely responsible, which creates precipitating sites for iron ions on the CNT surface. This facile method is expected to find applications not only for catalysis but also in the fields such as sensors and magnetic materials in particular where a perfect sp² hybridized carbon structure is preferred.