Carbon Nanocoil-Based Photothermal Conversion Carrier for Microbubble Transport

Abstract

Carbon nanocoil (CNC), a kind of quasi-one-dimensional carbon nanomaterial with a unique micro-scale helical structure, has wide application prospects in biological and environmental governance fields, due to its excellent photothermal conversion characteristics. We combine a carbon nanocoil as the laser irradiation carrier (i.e., the substance for absorbing light energy and converting light energy into heat to allow the creation of microbubbles) and a light-induced method to realize the radial short-distance transport of microbubbles. The results confirm that controlling the size of the microbubbles by laser power enables the radial transport of multiple microbubbles in a row. Light-induced CNC allows the creation of microbubbles at the start of the transport and the elimination of the microbubbles at the end of the transport, and the distance of transport between the laser irradiation site on the CNC and the location of the bubbles disappearing ranges from 10 µm to 30 µm. The circulation process of creating, transporting, and eliminating bubbles is expected to become a promising technology for soil and groundwater remediation.