INSTITUTUL NAÅ¢IONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE - ICECHIM

3. Chemistry in medical and pharmaceutical applications - OStable dispersion of MWNTs in water and synthesis of polyaniline/MWNTscompositesOUEINY Cynthia * , BERLIOZ Sophie, PERRIN François-XavierLaboratoire MAPIEM, Université du Sud Toulon Var,France, Avenue Georges Pompidou, 83162 La Valette-CedexSubstantial van der Waals attraction between carbon nanotubes makes difficult toachieve a good dispersion in water. To obtain dispersions of individual carbon nanotubes,which were initially in bundles, covalent and noncovalent methods were adopted. Covalentmethods involve functionalization of the carbon nanotubes with chemical groups (generallyCOOH) to improve their solubility in different solvents. However, these processes damageand scatter the nanotubes; defects are created and consequently the electrical and mechanicalproperties of carbon nanotubes were altered 19 . Noncovalent methods imply the use ofsurfactants that adsorb onto the nanotube surface via π-π stacking or hydrophobic interactions.This method keeps carbon nanotubes intact, thus their mechanical properties should notchange and surfactants can be easily removed by washing. That’s why; first of all, we reporthere a facile approach to a noncovalent dispersion of MWNTs by using amphiphilicphosphonic acids as surfactants.Once the MWNTs are dispersed, we envisaged the synthesis of polyaniline andmultiwall carbon nanotubes coated polyaniline via an in situ static interfacial polymerizationtechnique. The structure and morphology of the binary composites have been investigated bya variety of techniques including scanning electron microscopy SEM, transmission electronmicroscopy TEM, thermogravimetric analysis TGA, fourier transform infrared spectroscopyFTIR, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy UV-Vis, Raman spectroscopy and X-raydiffraction XRD.* contact : oueiny@univ-tln.fr9 J. Hilding, E.A. Grulke, Z.G. Zhang, F. Lockwood, J. Disper. Sci. Technol. 24 (2003) 1.