Fabrication and mechanical properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes and hyperbranched diazonium salt multilayers

Abstract

Acidized single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were fabricated into multilayers with a hyperbranched azobenzene-containing polymeric diazonium salt (PDAS) using the layer-by-layer adsorption technique. The fabrication process, multilayer thickness variation, multilayer surface morphology and the interaction between SWNTs and PDAS were monitored by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, optical ellipsometry, Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, the nanomechanical properties of the multilayer films were measured by nanoindentation. All results show that SWNTs and PDAS can be fabricated into multilayers based on the cooperation of electrostatic absorption and chemical cross-linkage between SWNTs and PDAS. Further, this cooperation endows the SWNT/PDAS multilayer films with outstanding nanomechanical properties. The hardness and modulus are about 2.0GPa and 10.0GPa, respectively. Finally, the SWNT/PDAS multilayer film can be peeled off to be a free-standing film.

Keywords

SWNTs / PDAS / Cross-linkage / Self-assembled multilayers