Quantification of Carbon Nanotube Liquid Crystal Morphology via Neutron Scattering

Published

September 11, 2018

Author(s)

Francesca Mirri, Rana N. Ashkar, Vida Jamali, Lucy Liberman, Robert A. Pinnick, Paul van der Schoot, Yeshayahu Talmon, Paul Butler, Matteo Pasquali

Abstract

Liquid phase assembly is among the most industrially attractive routes for scalable carbon nanotube (CNT) processing. Chlorosulfonic acid (CSA) was found to be an ideal solvent for CNTs, spontaneously dissolving them without compromising their properties. At typical processing concentrations, CNTs form liquid crystals in CSA; however, the type of of ordering and its concentration-dependence are not completely understood. Here, we use small angle neutron scattering, combined with polarized light microscopy and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy, to characterize CNT-CSA solution morphology at various concentrations for long and short CNTs. At the highest concentrations studied, and as theoretically predicted, the long CNTs form a fully nematic phase, while the short CNTs remain in biphasic regime. Upon dilution, long CNTs undergo a 2D lattice expansion, whereas short CNTs seem to have an intermediate expansion between 2D and 3D. Our data confirm the efficacy of CSA as a true solvent for CNTs.

Citation

Macromolecules

Volume

51

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Carbon nanotube, SWNT, SANS, TEM, nematic order

Citation

Mirri, F. , Ashkar, R. , Jamali, V. , Liberman, L. , Pinnick, R. , van der Schoot, P. , Talmon, Y. , Butler, P. and Pasquali, M. (2018), Quantification of Carbon Nanotube Liquid Crystal Morphology via Neutron Scattering, Macromolecules, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=923759 (Accessed October 25, 2025)