A review of carbon nanotube purification by microwave assisted acid digestion

Carbon nanotube purification by microwave assisted acid digestion has been reviewed. Microwave assisted purification demonstrates significant efficiency improvements over traditional acid reflux with minimal carbon nanotube damage under optimized conditions. This review discusses potential sources for this performance improvement and how best to exploit the technique for economical industrial scale carbon nanotube purification. A review of current literature demonstrates that the effect of key variables such as acid type and concentration, temperature, duration and pressure are not well understood and, due to their dependence, must be probed with correct experimental design to elucidate potential interaction effects. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.