Carbon nanotubes, a key material of high interest in the field of nanotechnology, resist dispersion in water and organic solvents. The question of how to disperse CNTs in solvents has emerged as a major issue.
We added commercially available multi-walled carbon nanotubes at a concentration of 0.002 wt% to each of several 1% aqueous solutions: an inorganic dispersant, sodium hexametaphosphate (HMPNa) and nonionic surfactants, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (NaDDBS). Following dispersion by ultrasonication for 5 minutes, we measured the zeta potential to evaluate dispersion effects.
