Edge-carboxylated Carbon Nanoflakes from Nitric Acid Oxidised Arc-discharge Material

TL;DR

This paper reports a simple method to produce edge-carboxylated carbon nanoflakes from arc-discharge carbon nanotube material using nitric acid oxidation, resulting in functionalized nanoflakes suitable for chemical modifications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, efficient single-step oxidation process to synthesize functionalized carbon nanoflakes from arc-discharge material.

Findings

Produced nanoflakes averaging 30 nm in diameter

Nanoflakes are mainly single-layer graphenic sheets

Edges are decorated with carboxylic acid groups

Abstract

Carbon Nanoflakes (CNFs) with average diameters of about 30 nm have been prepared and isolated in bulk quantities by a single-step oxidation procedure using single-wall carbon nanotube arc-discharge material and nitric acid. The CNFs are predominately single, graphenic sheets containing a small number of internal defects. The edges are decorated with primarily carboxylic acid groups which allow facile chemical functionalisation and cross-linking of the fragments using multivalent cations.