Small angle X-ray scattering study of carbon nanotube forests densified into long range patterns by controlled solvent evaporation

Ludovic F Dumée; Kallista Sears; Jürg A Schütz; Niall Finn; Mikel Duke; Stephen Mudie; Nigel Kirby; Stephen Gray

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2013.06.018

Small angle X-ray scattering study of carbon nanotube forests densified into long range patterns by controlled solvent evaporation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2013 Oct 1:407:556-60. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2013.06.018. Epub 2013 Jun 27.

Authors

Ludovic F Dumée¹, Kallista Sears, Jürg A Schütz, Niall Finn, Mikel Duke, Stephen Mudie, Nigel Kirby, Stephen Gray

Affiliation

¹ Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University, Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds 3216, Victoria, Australia. ludovic.dumee@deakin.edu.au

PMID: 23871309
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2013.06.018

Abstract

Although emergent properties from self-assembly of carbon nanotubes have been described in various forms there is so far no systematic process for the preparation of dense arrays of aligned nanotubes. Here we present a systematic study on the analysis of the alignment of carbon nanotubes within solvent densified carbon nanotube forests. Highly periodic patterns with length scales of the order of the millimetres were generated and characterized by electron and optical micrographs and compared to results from small angle X-ray scattering performed at various incident beam angles. The impact of the different solvents was also discussed in light of the densification process and in relation to solvent properties.

Keywords: Aligned carbon nanotube patterns; Carbon nanotubes forest densification; Emergent properties; Long range structuring; SAXS alignment analysis; Spontaneous order.