Efficient surface modification of carbon nanotubes for fabricating high performance CNT based hybrid nanostructures

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were chemically modified to achieve strong binding strength with the attached functional components as well as good dispersability and nanoparticle size-uniformity. An efficient multi-oxidation process was developed to create porous out layer with many nanoscale defects on the surface of CNTs for metallic nanoparticle close attachment and bond sufficient oxygen-containing groups, which assisted the dispersion of CNTs in the aqueous solution. The surface modified CNTs have advantages of strong binding capability, large surface area, high mechanical strength and good dispersability, which show great potential as building blocks for hybrid nanomaterials. Monodispersed silver nanoparticles with an average size of 3 nm were formed from inside the created nanoscale defects on the surface of CNTs without any obvious agglomerations. The fabricated hybrid exhibited much enhanced anti-bacterial performance compared to commercial silver nanoparticles due to the combined anti-bacterial effects of CNTs and silver nanoparticles. With these superior properties, the developed surface modification process could be widely used for improving the performances of many CNT based hybrid nanomaterials in diverse applications.