Abstract
We report a method to fabricate carbon nanotube (CNT) microcapsule through laser-induced bubble formation in a polyethylene glycol-modified CNT (PEG-CNT) solution in the presence of PEG. A low-power laser is focused on a heat-absorbing surface to create a bubble. While PEG-CNTs in the solution are deposited on the bubble surface to form a microcapsule. The shape stability of microcapsule during swelling process is measured in different concentrations of PEG solutions. The stable CNTs microcapsules form with uniform spherical shape within 8 seconds in a 2% PEG solution, while PEG-CNTs only randomly aggregate without the presence of PEG molecules. Thus, we propose that the deposition of PEG-CNTs is enhanced by PEG molecules due to depletion interaction. Comparing with other methods, assembling PEG-CNTs microcapsules at liquid-air interface of polymer solution by optical heating greatly reduce the time and provide good quality of CNTs microcapsules. This study may enable applications of PEG-CNTs microcapsules.
Highlights
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), discovered by Iijima in 1991,1 have unique electrical conductivity,2 mechanical strength,3 and outstanding chemical properties.4 CNT has been explored for various applications in nanocomposites,5 biomedical usage,6,7 and electronics.8,9 Correspondingly, hollow cage-like superstructure assembly has potential applications in sensors10 and drug delivery.11 At present, several approaches have been developed to fabricate hollow superstructure of CNTs assembly including layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly,12 water-in-oil emulsion technique,13 noncovalent self-assembly,14 and optical deposition method
Most previous methods include the step of depositing CNTs on templates cores through complementary interactions, and the template cores are removed by etching or calcination in the final step
CNTs spheres are fabricated through optical deposition on the ends of the optical fibers without the addition of template cores has been reported by K
Summary
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), discovered by Iijima in 1991,1 have unique electrical conductivity,2 mechanical strength,3 and outstanding chemical properties.4 CNT has been explored for various applications in nanocomposites,5 biomedical usage,6,7 and electronics.8,9 Correspondingly, hollow cage-like superstructure assembly has potential applications in sensors10 and drug delivery.11 At present, several approaches have been developed to fabricate hollow superstructure of CNTs assembly including layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly,12 water-in-oil emulsion technique,13 noncovalent self-assembly,14 and optical deposition method.15,16. Published Online: 27 September 2019 Hsin-Chieh Lee and Hong-Ren Jiang As optical heating creates bubbles in PEG solution, by depletion attraction, the PEG-CNTs may deposit on the bubble surface and form a microcapsule.
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