title: One-Step Preparation of Oxygen/Fluorine Dual Functional MWCNTs with Good Water Dispersibility by the Initiation of Fluorine Gas.
abstract: It is still a challenge to prepare water-dispersible carbon nanotubes which are proved to have great potential in numerous applications. In this present work, as low as 2% fluorine gas was used as initiator to prepare oxygen/fluorine dual functional MWCNTs (OF-MWCNTs) with good water dispersibility through a one-step method under oxygen atmosphere. The aromatic structure of OF-MWCNTs is reserved to some extent resulting in better electrical conductivity than pure fluorinated MWCNTs (F-MWCNTs). The amount of oxygen atoms and fluorine atoms (hereinafter referred to as "O-content" and "F-content") of OF-MWCNTs is up to 8.8% and 7.5%. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) manifests that - COOH is covalently bonded onto the surface of OF-MWCNTs. In addition, the OF-MWCNTs sample is pH-sensitive, which further validates the successful introduction of -COOH. The successful covalent attachment of -COOH onto MWCNTs dramatically improves the hydrophilia of MWCNTs which always present hydrophobic character. It is deduced that fluorine creates reactive sites for oxygen, increases the oxygen content, and eventually results in the dispersibility of OF-MWCNTs in water. The corresponding hydrophilic OF-MWCNTs film shows good performance for separating oil-in-water emulsions. Meanwhile, the good dispersibility of OF-MWCNTs in organic solvents also makes it possible to be applied in various composites.
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Weimiao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Baoyin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mengmeng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Teng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Material and Engineering, Sichuan University , Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiangyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: carbon nanotubes; dispersibility; hydrophilic modification; initiation; oil/water separation; oxyfluorination; water