Decorating Carbon Nanotubes with Nanoparticles

The unique, well-defined tubular structure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) continues to attract interest. CNTs are fascinating materials for basic scientific research with the potential for several promising applications in catalysis, electronic devices and chemical biology. In recent years, many efforts have led to the development of versatile methods to modify CNTs to obtain derivatives with more attractive features. To this end, a wide range of other materials, such as inorganic solids, small organic molecules, polymers and biomolecules have been introduced onto CNTs. Among these hybrid structures, an interesting class of CNT derivatives is obtained by the deposition of inorganic materials, such as metallic nanoparticles (NPs) and semiconductor nanoparticles, on the surface of CNTs. 5 The combination of the two classes of materials (CNTs and NPs) may lead to new hybrid materials with properties useful for catalysis, nanotechnology, and other applications.