Liquid crystal behavior of single wall carbon nanotubes

Single wall carbon nanotubes are dispersed in water with the water-soluble polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone and the surfactant sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, and then deposited by evaporative deposition onto degeneratively-doped silicon wafer substrates. These deposits were examined by scanning electron microscopy, which revealed highly-ordered arrays of large single wall carbon nanotube bundles. Various solution concentrations were prepared and deposition conditions were varied to determine their affect on the single wall carbon nanotube arrays. These observations were related to existing lyotropic liquid crystal theory and theories explaining the behavior of carbon nanotubes in solution, which allowed for further development and interpretation of the phase diagram which describes the behavior of single wall carbon nanotubes in lyotropic liquid crystal systems, and how competing liquid crystal systems in the same solution directly affect the ordering of the single wall carbon nanotube arrays. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deposition conditions; Doped silicon; Evaporative deposition; Further development; Liquid crystal systems; Lyotropic liquid crystal; Ordered array; Poly vinyl pyrrolidone; Single wall carbon nanotube bundles; Single wall carbon nanotubes; Sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate; Solution concentration; Watersoluble polymers; Carbon nanotubes; Liquid crystals; Phase diagrams; Scanning electron microscopy; Semiconducting silicon compounds; Silicon wafers; Sodium; Surface active agents; Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCN)

VIVO