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SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS

06 January 2016
1 s2.0 S0008622315005424 gr9
        Laura Cabana, Xiaoxing Ke, Dejan Kepića, Judith Oro-Solé, Ester Tobías-Rossell, Gustaaf Van Tendeloo, Gerard Tobias. Carbon, 

Volume 93, November 2015, Pages 1059–1067, doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2015.06.027

Purification and shortening of carbon nanotubes have attracted a great deal of attention to increase the biocompatibility and performance of the material in several applications. Steam treatment has been employed to afford both purification and shortening of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Steam removes the amorphous carbon and the graphitic particles that sheath catalytic nanoparticles, facilitating their removal by a subsequent acidic wash. The amount of metal impurities can be reduced in this manner below 0.01 wt.%. The length distribution of MWCNTs after different steam treatment times (from 1 h to 15 h) was assessed by box plot analysis of the electron microscopy data. Samples with a median length of 0.57 μm have been prepared with the reported methodology while preserving the integrity of the tubular wall structure.

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Bioactive materials for therapy and diagnosis

The role of steam treatment on the structure, purity and length distribution of multi-walled carbon nanotubes