Gold Nanoparticle Conjugated Water Soluble Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes

Tamoghna Bhattacharyya

doi:10.3390/chemosensors6030036

Abstract

The poor solubility and dispersibility of carbon nanotubes in both aqueous and organic solvents restrict their applications in biological science. Herein, a simple and cheap method for synthesizing and purification of water soluble multiwall carbon nanotubes from coal combustion fly ash and characterization of this water soluble multiwall carbon nanotubes after conjugation with gold nanoparticles has been described.

Highlights

The discovery of buckminsterfullerene [1] by Smalley, Curl, and Kroto, which was aimed to understand the mechanism of long chain carbon molecules, revolutionized the carbon-based nanoscience
Later Iijima, discovered another new carbon allotrope named as carbon nanotube (CNT)
Numerous methods have been developed for the preparation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) such as arc-discharge [1,2,3,4,5], laser ablation [6], high-pressure catalytic decomposition of carbon monoxide (HiPCO) [7], electrophoretic deposition (EPD) [8], flame synthesis [9], pyrolysis [10], chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [11], hot filament CVD [12], plasma enhanced CVD [13], radio-frequency [14], and microwave power sources [15]

Summary

Introduction

The discovery of buckminsterfullerene [1] by Smalley, Curl, and Kroto, which was aimed to understand the mechanism of long chain carbon molecules, revolutionized the carbon-based nanoscience. Catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbons requires a complex purification process to get rid of the metal catalyst particles [16]. Among all these synthetic routes for the synthesis of these carbon nanostructures, the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) route is mainly favored because of scalability and potentially low cost [17]. CNTs have unique mechanical, optical, electronic, and quantum mechanical properties, but the unfortunate aspect of CNTs is the poor solubility and dispersibility in both aqueous and organic solvents due its hydrophobic nature It restricts their applications in the field of biological sciences. A simple and cheap method for synthesizing gold nanoparticles conjugated water soluble multi-walled carbon nanotubes (wsMWCNTs) has been described which may open up a new direction in biology, in targeted drug delivery

Methods

Results

Conclusion