Dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotube in tetrahydrofuran functionalized with Ar/O2, Ar/N2, and Ar/N2/H2 plasma

The dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) in tetrahydrofuran (THF) will be compared for three different functionalizations with dielectric barrier discharge in this journal article. We found that the functionalization with the plasma discharge created with the mixture gas, argon(Ar)/nitrogen(N-2)/hydrogen(H-2), was the most effective in dispersing MWCNTs in THF than the plasma created with the other two mixture gases, argon/oxygen(O-2) or argon/nitrogen. According to the gas composition creating the discharge, the amino group possibly affects the better CNT dispersion in THF. Our measurements with light transmission indicated that the MWCNTs functionalized with Ar/N-2/H-2 plasma dispersed as much as 42.2 mg/L. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.