Purification of multi-walled carbon nanotubes by microwave digestion method

Here developed is an efficient method for purification of multi-walled carbon nanotubes synthesized by electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECRCVD). Carbon nanotubes may find their limited use for some applications as they contain a small fraction of metal catalysts in the tubes and tend to have defects along the graphene tube wall. Defects within the multi-walled carbon nanotubes would reduce electrical and structure properties. A two-step acidic treatment in microwave digestion system is used to dissolve metal catalysts. HNO3 or HCl can rapidly absorb microwave heat and energy and completely dissolve metal, which reside in carbon nanotubes without damage. The processing time of the two-step microwave-assisted and acid-treated time to dissolve metal in the MWCNTs is below 1 h. After purification, the amount of residual catalyst metals in samples is estimated by using the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results show that a high-yield of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with approximately 5% of metal is obtained. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.