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Materials Science and Engineering

Rowan University

2011

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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Behavior Of Na+-Polystyrene Sulfonate At The Interface With Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (Swnts) And Its Implication To Swnt Suspension Stability, Tabbetha A. Dobbins, Richard Chevious, Yuri Lvov Jun 2011

Behavior Of Na+-Polystyrene Sulfonate At The Interface With Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (Swnts) And Its Implication To Swnt Suspension Stability, Tabbetha A. Dobbins, Richard Chevious, Yuri Lvov

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

The assembly of sodium polystyrene sulfonate (Na+-PSS) at the surface of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in pH 3 aqueous solution is described. Rather than forming linear or sheet-like chain morphologies over SWNT surfaces, Na+-PSS adopts a spherically collapsed conformation believed to be the result of cation (either Na+ or H+) condensation onto the ionized polymer chain. It is well reported that cations (and also anions) adsorb preferentially onto single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotube surfaces leading to an increased ion concentration in the near surface regions relative to the bulk solution. This work provides experimental evidence for preferentially absorbed cation condensation …