Mapping functional groups on oxidised multi-walled carbon nanotubes at the nanometre scale.
Despite voluminous research on the acid oxidation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), there is a distinct lack of experimental results showing distributions of functional groups at the nanometre length scale. Here, functional peaks have been mapped across individual multi-walled CNTs with low-dose, monochromated electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Density functional theory simulations show that the EELS features are consistent with oxygenated functional groups, most likely carboxyl moieties.
Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London, UK. aeg08@ic.ac.uk.
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Goode
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Hine
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Chen
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Bergin
M S P
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Shaffer
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Ryan
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Haynes
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Porter
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McComb