Electrochemical deposition of metal nano-structures on carbon nanotubes

PMSE 40

Bachlien Dang, dangbt@tsu.edu, Yuanjian Deng, deng_yj@tsu.edu, Kun Tao, taok@tsu.edu, and Xin Wei, wei_xi@tsu.edu. Department of Chemistry, Texas Southern University, 3100 Cleburne Avenue, Houston, TX 77004
Due to their exquisite structures and outstanding mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have stimulated research efforts in a broad range of areas, including nano-reinforced materials, miniaturized electronics and other multifunctional devices. When decorated with metal nanostructures, CNTs have demonstrated many new exciting properties that rival the state-of-the-art materials used in fuel cells, biosensors, electromagnetic interference shielding, and fabrication of complex CNT networks. Therefore, recently the metallization of CNTs has drawn new research attention while CNTs have been successfully coated with metal nanoparticles including Pt, Au, Pd, Ti, Ni, Cu, Al, and Fe by various methods. This work reports a novel technique to electrodeposit metal nanostructures on CNTs. The amount and the morphology of the deposited metal nanostructures can be precisely manipulated by customizing the processes for the material pretreatment and controlling the electrochemical parameters.