Polymer nanocomposites based on functionalized carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes have aroused great interest since their discovery in 1991. Because of the vast potential of these materials, researchers from diverse disciplines have come together to further develop our understanding of the fundamental properties governing their electronic structure and susceptibility towards chemical reaction. Carbon nanotubes show extreme sensitivity towards changes in their local chemical environment that stems from the susceptibility of their electronic structure to interacting molecules. This chemical sensitivity has made them ideal candidates for incorporation into the design of chemical sensors. Towards this end, carbon nanotubes have made impressive strides in sensitivity and chemical selectivity to a diverse array of chemical species. Despite the lengthy list of accomplishments, several key challenges must be addressed before carbon nanotubes are capable of competing with state-of-the-art solid-state sensor materials. The development of carbon nanotube based sensors is still in its infancy, but continued progress may lead to their integration into commercially viable sensors of unrivalled sensitivity and vanishingly small dimensions.

Carbon nanotube gas and vapor sensors.

Discoveries of new materials have significant impact on development of new methods and instrumentation for chemical analysis. Based on 104 references, this article illustrates a growing number of applications of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in analytical chemistry. The largest numbers of reported applications concern design of novel gas sensors, voltammetry, enzymatic biosensors, immunosensors and DNA probes. The sorptive properties of CNTs are also employed for analytical purposes in various ways.

Analytical applications of carbon nanotubes : a review

Organic―inorganic nanocomposite polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cell applications

http://www.wanglab-tsinghua.com/pdf/2013PMS_321.pdf

Electro-spinning/netting: A strategy for the fabrication of three-dimensional polymer nano-fiber/nets

Composite humidity sensing films were made from carbon nanotube (CNT) and Nafion. The sensing films were prepared using the spin-coating method. Sensing films coated on the electrode of a Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) were used for low humidity measurement. This low humidity system was set up with a divided flow generator and calibrated by an optical chilled dew-point hygrometer in the measuring range from 8.50 to 15,300 ppm v . The detection limit of this sensing system was about 15.76 ppm v . In this low humidity sensing system, the CNT/Nafion sensing material coated on the gold electrode of QCM showed excellent sensitivity, linearity (Rsqr = 0.995), short response and recovery time (less than 5 s, at testing point of 15.76 ppm v ).

Kuo-Hung Chan

Papers

The application of CNT/Nafion composite material to low humidity sensing measurement