The origin of amphipathic nature of short and thin pristine carbon nanotubes - fully recyclable 1D water-in-oil emulsion stabilizers
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The origin of amphipathic nature of short and thin pristine carbon nanotubes - fully recyclable 1D water-in-oil emulsion stabilizers
CIC nanoGUNE Seminars
- Speaker
-
Karolina Zofia Milowska, Ikerbasque Research Fellow, Theory, CIC nanoGUNE
- When
-
2023/03/27
13:00
- Place
- nanoGUNE seminar room, Tolosa Hiribidea 76, Donostia - San Sebastian
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-
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**The origin of amphipathic nature of short and thin pristine carbon nanotubes
- fully recyclable 1D water-in-oil emulsion stabilizers**
Karolina Zofia Milowska
Ikerbasque Research Fellow, Theory, CIC nanoGUNE
Carbon nanotubes (CNT)s have already demonstrated scientific and technological
breakthroughs including scalable coatings, composites, supercapacitors, tissue
engineering, and biosensors. However, inconsistencies in understanding of
water-solid interfaces for realistic CNTs hamper their individualization-
driven functionalities, processability in benign media, and compatibility with
a broad-scale of matrices. Pristine CNT processing based on water and
inexpensive n-alkanes within a low energy regime would constitute an important
step towards greener technologies. Therefore, we quantitatively assess
structural CNT components, placing various CNTs on the scale from
hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity. This structural interweave can lead to
amphipathicity enabling the formation of water-in-oil emulsions. Combining
experiments with theoretical studies [1], we comprehensively characterize CNTs
and CNT emulsions establishing descriptors of the emulsifying behavior of
pristine and purified CNTs. They emerge as having hydrophilic open-ends, small
number of oxygen-functionalized/vacancy surface areas, and hydrophobic
sidewalls and full caps. The interplay of these regions allows short and thin
CNTs to be utilized as fully recyclable 1D surfactants stabilizing water/oil
emulsions which, as we demonstrate, can be applied as paints for flexible
conductive coatings. These coatings are characterized by considerable smaller
resistance than coatings with additional surfactants or containing pristine
graphene. In addition, we show how the amphipathic strength depends on CNT
size, the pristine-to-oxidized/vacancy domains and the oil-to-water ratios.
Our results confirm shorter and thinner pristine multi-walled CNTs as
promising candidates for fully recyclable 1D emulsifying agents capable of
replacing aquatoxic low-molecular surfactants in the the preparation of
composites, in/as heat transfer (io)nanofluids, superlubricants, paints,
coatings, electrocatalysts and as drug vehicles for locoregional therapy or
contrast agents in bioimaging.