JOURNAL OF POLYMER ENGINEERING

Vol. 22, No. 5, 2002, page 353

ON THE ROUTE TO COMPATIBILIZATION OF CARBON NANOTUBES

Einat Nativ-Roth¹, Yael Levi-Kalisman², Oren Regev^1,2
and Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen^1,2

¹Department of Chemical Engineering

²The Ilse Katz Center for Meso and Nano-scale Science and Technology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, 84105 Beer Sheva, Israel

ABSTRACT

The behavior of single wall and multi wall carbon nanotubes in aqueous solutions of Gum Arabic, a natural polysaccharide, is described. Using electron microscopy, we observe that while the as-prepared nanotube powders contain highly entangled ropes and bundles, the dispersions are mainly composed of individual tubes. TGA of the dried dispersions indicates that the stability of the tubes is not affected by the procedure. It is suggested that the ability of Gum Arabic to exfoliate the bundles, and stabilize individual tubes in aqueous dispersions, can be utilized in the preparation of carbon nanotube-polymer composites. Here the dispersing polymer can act as a compatibilizer and as an adhesion promoter leading to strengthening of the matrix-nanotube interface.

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