Stable and solid pellets of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes produced under high pressure and temperature

High pressure/temperature was applied on samples of pristine multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), functionalized nanotubes (f-MWCNT), and nanotubes doped with nitrogen (CN_xMWNT). Cylindrical compact pellets of f-MWCNT with diameters of about 6 mm were obtained under pressure of 4.0 GPa at room temperature and at 400 °C, using graphite as pressure transmitting medium. The best pellet samples were produced using nitric and sulfuric acids for the functionalization of MWCNT. The effect of high pressure/temperature on CNT was investigated by several spectroscopy and characterization techniques, such as Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, N₂ adsorption/desorption isotherms, and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that MWCNT maintain their main features in the compacted pellets, such as integrity, original morphology, and structure, demonstrating that high-pressure/temperature compaction can indeed be used to fabricate novel CNT self-supported materials. Additionally, the specific surface area and porosity are unchanged, which is important when using bulk CNT in adsorption processes. Raman analysis of the G’-band showed a shift to lower wavenumbers when f-MWCNT were processed under high pressure, suggesting that CNT are under tensile stress.