Electroless deposition of Cu on multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Copper has been deposited on the surface of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and inside MWNTs by electroless deposition. The as-prepared Cu-MWNT composite materials have been characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electrochemical measurement. XRD analyses showed that Cu was a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure. The average size of Cu was calculated by Scherrer's formula from XRD data, and it was 11 nm. TEM revealed that Cu grains on the surface of MWNTs were uniform with the sizes of about 30-60 nm. The electrochemical measurement indicated that Cu-MWNT composite materials possessed fine electron conductivity.