Functionalization of carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is a timely topic in contemporary nanostructures literature. It is believed that modifications of SWCNTs properties could open the way towards real nanotechnology applications. In the present paper chemical functionalization of SWCNTs was performed to obtain first the carboxyl-functionalized species and then various synthetic approaches were investigated to obtain the target product (triethylene-glycol-functionalized SWCNTs), which can be used as a linker with medical purposes. The intermediate and final reaction products have been characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, TEM analysis and micro-RAMAN spectroscopy.