Supercritical carbon dioxide-assisted deposition of tin oxide on carbon nanotubes

This work demonstrates a versatile and effective method for uniform deposition of SnO2 on the surfaces of CNTs. The obtained SnO2-CNT nanohybrids were morphologically and structurally characterized by different techniques. Detailed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation revealed that SnO2 nanoparticles may cover the tube surfaces or be encapsulated into the tube channels by manipulating experimental conditions. The loading density of SnO2 on CNTs is tunable by varying the initial weight ratio of the precursor to CNTs. This simple and clean method offers a flexible avenue for further exploring the properties and applications of the as-synthesized CNT composites. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.