Metal-encapsulated carbon nanotubes and method for producding such carbon nanotubes via solvent shell reactions with metallic ions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11623866-B1
Application number	US-202117371498-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 9, 2021
Priority date	Oct 16, 2018
Publication date	Apr 11, 2023
Grant date	Apr 11, 2023

Abstract

A method encapsulates nanoscale material by producing a suspension of the nanostructure material in a first solvent using a micelle surrounding the nanostructure material. The micelle surrounding the suspended nanostructure material is swollen by adding to and mixing with the suspension an immiscible phase second solvent containing a precursor. The precursor is then reduced by adding a reducing reactant selectively soluble in the first solvent that reacts to the precursor containing reactant selectively solvated in the second solvent to encapsulate the nanostructure material. A metal-nanostructure composite can be provided by collecting and mixing the metal-shell encapsulated nanostructure product produced by the aforementioned method into a metal matrix.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for encapsulating nanoscale material, comprising:
(a) producing a suspension of the nanostructure material in a first solvent using a micelle surrounding the nanostructure material,
(b) swelling the micelle surrounding the suspended nanostructure material by adding to and mixing with the suspension an immiscible phase second solvent containing a precursor, and
(c) reducing the precursor by consisting of the step of adding a reducing reactant selectively soluble in the first solvent that reacts to the precursor containing reactant selectively solvated in the second solvent to encapsulate the nanostructure material; wherein the reducing reactant being used is hydrazine.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
(d) collecting and mixing the encapsulated nanostructure material into a matrix.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the matrix is a metal matrix.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanostructure material is comprised of individual carbon nanotubes suspended in the first solvent.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second solvent comprises an oil phase with the precursor.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the precursor is an organometallic precursor that is reduced to its base metal in step (c).

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second solvent comprises an oil phase with the precursor.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the surfactant is selected to provide a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic head for producing an oleophilic micellar region around the suspended nanostructure material.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the nanostructure material is comprised of individual carbon nanotubes.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the nanostructure material is comprised of single-wall carbon nanotubes and the metal salt is iron (III) acetylacetonate (Fe(acac) 3 ) or copper (II) acetylacetonate (Cu(acac) 2 ) and with chloroform as the immiscible phase being used in step (b).

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the precursor contains dissolved metal salt.

Assignees

• Mainstream Eng Corporation

Inventors

• Chester Gregory E
• Skinner Anna P
• Hill Justin J

Classifications

• C01B32/168 Primary

  After-treatment · CPC title

• C01P2004/04

  obtained by TEM, STEM, STM or AFM · CPC title

• C01P2002/82

  by IR- or Raman-data · CPC title

• C01P2002/50

  Solid solutions · CPC title

• C01B2202/02

  Single-walled nanotubes · CPC title