Chemistry of Carbon Nanotubes in Flow

Abstract

The covalent chemistry of carbon nanostructures has put forth a wide variety of interesting derivatives that widen their potential as functional materials. However, the synthetic procedures that have been developed to functionalize the nanostructures may require long reaction times and harsh conditions. In this paper, we study the continuous flow processing of single-wall carbon nanotubes with azomethine ylides and diazonium salts and demonstrate that this approach is effective to reduce reaction times and tune the properties of the functionalized carbon materials.