Preparation and Characterization of Functional Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) through Acidification and Radiation Induced Graft Polymerization

In this paper, a step-by-step method is proposed to graft poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) onto carbon nanotubes via gamma-ray irradiation induced graft polymerization. Different ways of acidification have a great influence on the surface structure of carbon nanotubes. During the process of gamma-ray irradiation induced graft polymerization, the degree of grafting (DG) of PAA onto the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) obtained by acidification is obviously different. Meanwhile, this paper also studies the effects of polymer inhibitor and monomer concentration on DG of samples through gamma-ray irradiation induced graft polymerization.