Carbon Nanotubes Non-Covalent Modified by Ionic Liquid Surfactant and its Optical Limiting Properties

Abstract

The stability of the carbon nanotubes suspension is poor, resulting from the characteristic of insoluble in aqueous solution. Nevertheless, optical limiting devices need long-term stability. In the interest of finding effective and stable materials for optical limiting, we had tried to combine the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and ionic liquids surfactant (hydroxypropyl sulfo imidazoline) to obtain a new dispersion. Ultimately, we achieved non-covalent modification to carbon nanotubes. The electronic structure of the carbon nanotubes’ surface was protected integrality and the dispersion was stable and effective. It was verified by experimental observation through a field scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Finally we did a series of experiments to studied the optical limiting characteristics of the new dispersion. The results manifested that the dispersion system owned well optical limiting properties and better stability, at the same time, we also proved that the negative pressure environment could also do well to optical limiting effect.