Investigation of the surface properties of different highly aligned N-MWCNT carpets

TL;DR

This study examines how different synthesis methods affect the surface wettability of nitrogen-doped multi-walled carbon nanotube carpets, revealing that nitrogen incorporation type significantly influences surface polarity and hydrophobicity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how nitrogen incorporation modes affect the surface properties of N-MWCNT carpets synthesized by SCVD.

Findings

Toluene/pyrazine and toluene/benzylamine samples are hydrophobic.

Acetonitrile-synthesized samples are completely wetting.

Nitrogen incorporation type influences surface polarity.

Abstract

We investigated the physicochemical surface properties of different highly aligned nitrogen-doped multi-walled carbon nanotube (N-MWCNT) carpets, synthesized using toluene/pyrazine, toluene/benzylamine and acetonitrile via a sublimation-based chemical vapor deposition (SCVD) method at 760{\deg}C. The surfaces of the N-MWCNT carpets synthesized using toluene/pyrazine and toluene/benzylamine were very hydrophobic. In contrast, we observed a complete wetting of the N-MWCNT carpets synthesized using acetonitrile. The difference in the wetting behavior of these N-MWCNT carpets is the main focus in this study and was not investigated before. Here, we show that not only the presence or concentration of nitrogen inside the carbon lattice, but especially it's kind of incorporation have an important influence on the surface polarity.