Microwave-Assisted Chemical Functionalization of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Organic Peroxides

Microwave-assisted chemical functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes. with undecyl groups decomposed from lauroyl peroxides was reported. This rapid efficient procedure reduced the reaction time to 10 min, and obtained the products with higher functionalized degree than that by the conventional refluxing method. The influence of different reaction time and microwave power on the functionalized degree has been explored by using Fr-IR, TGA and Raman analyses. The results show that longer treatment time will lead to partial defunctionalization, and higher microwave power (higher than 900 W) can reduce the functionalized degree by removing some initially-attached functional groups. Dispersion stability images and HRTEM images show that the resulting SWNT has enhanced dispersivity in organic solvents compared to the pristine nanotubes.