TITLE:
Optical and Morphological Properties of Carbon Nanotube—Anatase Nanocomposites: Improvements in Visible Absorbance
AUTHORS:
Marianna Barberio, P. Barone, A. Imbrogno, A. Bonanno, F. Xu
KEYWORDS:
Carbon Nanotubes; Anatase; Nanocomposites; Visible Absorbance
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Composite Materials,
Vol.4 No.1,
January
23,
2014
ABSTRACT:
In this work, we present the growth
and optical characterization of carbon nanotube/TiO2 anatase
nanocomposites. The composites are obtained by doping a bulk of anatase nanometric
grains with different weight percentages of carbon nanotube (from 0.1% to
50%). We observe that only for tube concentrations between 0.1% and 2%, the
growth process shows the formation of a matrix where carbon nanotubes are
uniformed and dispersed in a
bulk of TiO2 grains. Moreover, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
and surface morphology analysis (conducted from AFM images) indicated that the
CNT absorption is a simple physisorption without chemical bonds formations between tube and
dioxide. Finally, absorption in all the visible range has the increase of about 60% at very low
concentration (2%) of carbon nanotubes.