Large-scale solvent-free functionalisation of carbon nanotubes

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Due to their unique properties, carbon nanotubes are critical enabling materials in a wide range of applications, ranging from advanced polymer composites, to battery electrodes. They are already produced in tonne quantities and the market is growing rapidly. However, in order to optimise their processing and performance it is necessary to modify their surface chemically. Current chemical techniques are slow, wasteful, and typically operate at a small scale; they are fundamentally ill-suited to the industrial production of CVD nanotubes where plant capacity is often on the order of 100 tonnes pa. We have developed a versatile, rapid, and clean approach to nanotube modification that we believe to be inherently scalable and compatible with existing nanotube production facilities. The proposed project will demonstrate this scalability and provide samples of modified nanotubes with a range of value-adding properties. These examples will be selected both to satisfy the requirements of existing nanotube users, and to stimulate new markets that depend on larger volumes of modified nanotubes than are currently available. With this proof-of-concept data in place, our patented technology will be exploited in order to create a new generation of nanotube-based products.