Abstract
Keratin, obtained from chicken feathers, was grafted on the surface of commercially available carbon nanotubes. The original procedure developed allows a covalent interaction between some specific chemical groups characteristic of the keratin, with some functional groups introduced on purpose on the surface of the nanotubes, as revealed by infrared and Raman spectroscopies, which also allowed to determine structural changes introduced during the process, such as crystallinity, which lead to changes in other properties, as well.
Highlights
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have become one of the main focuses of contemporary materials science and engineering thanks to their extraordinary electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties [1] and the rolling up of the graphene sheet at a nanometer scale [2], high stiffness, and axial strength, as a result of the carbon-carbon sp2 bonding [3]
The original procedure developed allows a covalent interaction between some specific chemical groups characteristic of the keratin, with some functional groups introduced on purpose on the surface of the nanotubes, as revealed by infrared and Raman spectroscopies, which allowed to determine structural changes introduced during the process, such as crystallinity, which lead to changes in other properties, as well
Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were obtained from a commercial source, which produced them by chemical vapor deposition, with a diameter from 10 to 30 nm and 1 to 10 μm long, with a purity >90% and surface area of 90 to 350 m2/g
Summary
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have become one of the main focuses of contemporary materials science and engineering thanks to their extraordinary electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties [1] and the rolling up of the graphene sheet at a nanometer scale [2], high stiffness, and axial strength, as a result of the carbon-carbon sp bonding [3]. The precise magnitude of these properties depends on the diameter and chirality of the nanotubes and whether they are single-walled (SWNTs), double-walled (DWNTs), or multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs) in form [5] Despite their low degree of crystallinity, CNTs still maintain high mechanical properties. Keratin is a useful subject for the study of orientation because it occurs naturally in a α-helix configuration in mammalian fibers such as hair and wool but predominantly adopts a β-sheet configuration in avian fibers such as feathers These fibers, as well as keratin in skin, have been the target of a number of recent studies according to Rintoul et al [12]. In this present work, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were oxidized by hydrolysis to generate defects and different functional groups such as –OH and –COOH in its walls (MWOH’s) [13, 14] aiming to be able to produce a novel hybrid organic-inorganic nanocomposite, through the grafting of keratin onto the carbon nanotubes
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