Photolysis-Driven, Room Temperature Filling of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Jagjiwan Mittal; Marc Monthioux; Virginie Serin

doi:10.1166/jnn.2019.16316

Photolysis-Driven, Room Temperature Filling of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2019 Jul 1;19(7):4129-4135. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2019.16316.

Authors

Jagjiwan Mittal¹, Marc Monthioux¹, Virginie Serin¹

Affiliation

¹ Centre d'Elaboration de Matériaux et d'Etudes Structurales, UPR A-8011 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, BP 94347, F-31055 Toulouse Cedex 4, France.

PMID: 30764981
DOI: 10.1166/jnn.2019.16316

Abstract

An alternative process for opening and filling single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) based on UV photolysis is proposed. The filling of SWCNTs with MoCl₅ and iodine were successfully achieved at room temperature after subjecting SWCNTs with MoCl₅ or I₂ dissolved in chloroform to UV light for 6 hours. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) were used to characterise both the encapsulated materials and the host tube. A mechanism for the related opening and filling events is proposed, along with a possible yet unprecedented structure for the encapsulated MoCl₅ material whose the peculiar polymeric configuration could be enforced by the steric constrains resulting from the limited, 1D cavity available in SWCNT core.