title: Wet-grinding assisted ultrasonic dispersion of pristine multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in chitosan solution.
abstract: Ultrasonication is often used to disperse nano-particles in aqueous solution. However, a good dispersion of nano-particles in aqueous solution is not always achieved, due to the fact that incoming ultrasonicwaves in liquid are usually reflected and damped at the gas/liquid interface. In this work, we report a so-called wet-grinding assisted ultrasonication (GU) method, in which wet-grinding of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in chitosan solution is carried out before ultrasonication. The dispersions of MWCNTs were characterized by visual comparison, UV/vis spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrate that the dispersion quality of chitosan/MWCNT suspension prepared by wet-grinding assisted ultrasonication is much better than that by ultrasonication or wet-grinding alone. It was found that wet-grinding could improve the water wettability of MWCNTs and eliminate the barrier of air layer around MWCNTs to ultrasonicwaves. Meanwhile, the composite from the chitosan/MWCNTs suspension prepared by GU method has an obvious improvement in mechanical property compared to pure chitosan. This simple method for integrating MWCNTs and biocompatible chitosan into a homogeneous dispersion may have great potential application in biotechnology, such as preparing composite materials for medicine, bio-fiber, biosensor, antibacterial coating, and cell cultivation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Materials, Sichuan University, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Chengdu 610065, China.
authors.forename: Changyu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Tiannan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jinghui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D013818:Thermogravimetry; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D048271:Chitosan