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Carbon nanotubes functionalized with sulfonated polyether-ether-ketone are investigated using solid state nuclear magnetic resonance. Carbon and proton NMR experiments of the sulfonated polymer chains covalently grafted on the nanotube surface reveal a distribution of diamagnetic shifted lines. These experimental results can be interpreted at the molecular level in terms of magnetic ring currents originating from the surface of the graphitized wall of the nanotubes in agreement with recent theoretical investigations. These features can potentially be used to track the structural modifications, which take place during the functionalization of carbon nanotubes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the formalisms of Langmuir and Fowler, theoretical adsorption isotherms are calculated for different bundle geometries of single wall carbon nanotubes in a triangular lattice. The authors show the dependence of the adsorption properties on the nanotube diameter and on the specific morphology of the bundles they constitute. The authors demonstrate how isotherm curve analysis can help to experimentally determine what kinds of tubes form a given bundle and the ratio of open to closed tubes in a sample having undergone a complete or incomplete opening protocol. In spite of the model’s simplicity, quite satisfactory agreement is observed between experiments and the authors’ calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the novel anode material which is Li4Ti5O12/Si prepared by gasstated method, mainly spray-pyrolysis technique. The literature review performed in this paper revealed two main components which can be potentially mixed into the efficient anode material. Silicon (Si) has the highest possible capacity of 4200 mAh g-1 among all commonly used anodes. Due to its 'zero-strain' (<1% volume change) properties and stable cycling, Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) is considered as a promising anode for lithium ion batteries. Combination of these two anode materials is considered as a promising approach to prepare a high performance composite anode. The precursor solution consisted of homogeneous mixture of lithium nitrate and titanium tetraisopropoxide dissolved in deionized water with equimolar concentration of 0.5 M. The aerosol formation was performed at nitrogen environment and the droplets were carried into the quartz tube reactor at the flowrate of 4 L min-1. The rector temperature was held at 800 °C. The spray-pyrolysis synthesis was performed as one-step operation, excluding the need of calcination of as-prepared powders, and continuous process by the mean of peristaltic pump. The as-prepared powders had wide size distribution from nanometers to microns. The materials obtained had well-crystallized structure with insignificant amount of impurities. The powders were analyzed by the following analytical equipment: 1) the presence of Li4Ti5O12 and Si in the obtained composite was confirmed by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD); 2) The structure and morphology of LTO and Si molecules were observed and studied with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a detailed experimental and theoretical study on how structural properties of carbon nanotubes can be derived from 13C NMR investigations. Magic angle spinning solid state NMR experiments have been performed on single- and multiwalled carbon nanotubes with diameters in the range from 0.7 to 100 nm and with number of walls from 1 to 90. We provide models on how diameter and the number of nanotube walls influence NMR linewidth and line position. Both models are supported by theoretical calculations. Increasing the diameter D, from the smallest investigated nanotube, which in our study corresponds to the inner nanotube of a double-walled tube to the largest studied diameter, corresponding to large multiwalled nanotubes, leads to a 23.5 ppm diamagnetic shift of the isotropic NMR line position δ. We show that the isotropic line follows the relation δ = 18.3/D + 102.5 ppm, where D is the diameter of the tube and NMR line position δ is relative to tetramethylsilane. The relation asymptotically tends to approach the line position expected in graphene. A characteristic broadening of the line shape is observed with the increasing number of walls. This feature can be rationalized by an isotropic shift distribution originating from different diamagnetic shielding of the encapsulated nanotubes together with a heterogeneity of the samples. Based on our results, NMR is shown to be a nondestructive spectroscopic method that can be used as a complementary method to, for example, transmission electron microscopy to obtain structural information for carbon nanotubes, especially bulk samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]