title: Multiwall carbon nanotube and TiO2 sol assembly.
abstract: Carbon nanotube and TiO2 assemblies (CNT/TiO2) have the great promise of combining the advantages of CNTs and TiO2 as photocatalytic and energy conversion materials. In this study, nanoscale TiO2 sol was assembled onto multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The CNT/TiO2 sol assemblies were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The study shows that the acidic functional group concentration on CNT surfaces increases with surface modification temperature, up to 1.179 mmol/g. Higher concentration of acidic functional group greatly improves the amount of TiO2 sol assembled onto MWCNTs. Higher TiO2 sol concentration also improves the amount of TiO2 sol assembled onto MWCNT surfaces. The assembly mechanism is mainly by chemical reaction between the -COOH groups of MWCNTs and the -OH groups of TiO2 sol by esterification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 213 Holden Hall, M/C 0237, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
authors.forename: Junmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lu