%0 Journal Article
%T Insights into Metal Oxide and Zero-Valent Metal Nanocrystal Formation on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Surfaces during Sol-Gel Process
%A Dipesh Das
%A Indu V. Sabaraya
%A Navid B. Saleh
%A Tara Sabo-Attwood
%J Archive of "Nanomaterials".
%D 2018
%R 10.3390/nano8060403
%X Carbon nanotubes are hybridized with metal crystals to impart multifunctionality into the nanohybrids (NHs). Simple but effective synthesis techniques are desired to form both zero-valent and oxides of different metal species on carbon nanotube surfaces. Sol-gel technique brings in significant advantages and is a viable technique for such synthesis. This study probes the efficacy of sol-gel process and aims to identify underlying mechanisms of crystal formation. Standard electron potential (SEP) is used as a guiding parameter to choose the metal species; i.e., highly negative SEP (e.g., Zn) with oxide crystal tendency, highly positive SEP (e.g., Ag) with zero-valent crystal-tendency, and intermediate range SEP (e.g., Cu) to probe the oxidation tendency in crystal formation are chosen. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction are used to evaluate the synthesized NHs. Results indicate that SEP can be a reliable guide for the resulting crystalline phase of a certain metal species, particularly when the magnitude of this parameter is relatively high. However, for intermediate range SEP-metals, mix phase crystals can be expected. For example, Cu will form Cu2O and zero-valent Cu crystals, unless the synthesis is performed in a reducing environment
%K nanohybrid
%K hybridization
%K standard electron potential
%K crystal phase
%K reducing agents
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6026900/