Electro-conductive porous scaffold with single-walled carbon nanotubes in wormlike micellar networks

A simple and rapid flow-induced microfluidic process is employed to disperse and encapsulate low volumes of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in wormlike micellar networks, thereby forming an electro-conductive porous scaffold. SWCNTs with anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) are first mixed with an aqueous wormlike micellar solution consisting of cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and organic salt sodium salicylate (NaSal). The precursor mixture is then pumped through a microfluidic device containing hexagonal microposts at room temperature and ambient pressure, developing a soft scaffold with entangled bundle-like structures, containing interconnected SWCNTs and wormlike micelles. One-step microfluidic process presented in this work opens a new pathway to disperse and encapsulate SWCNTs in a micellar matrix without involving chemical reactions under ambient conditions, with promising potentials for sensing, encapsulation, and catalysis applications.