Plasma Modification of Carbon Nanotubes and Bucky Papers

Due to their hydrophobic nature, carbon nanotubes (CNT) as well as CNT sheets (bucky papers) made thereof are limited in their applications. We use glow discharge plasma treatments to generate functional groups like alcohol or carboxylic groups on CNT sheets as well as on CNT powders to increase their wettability. The influence of plasma parameters such as power, pressure, treatment time, employed process gas, or gas mixture was investigated furthermore including post-treatment reactions. Hydrophilized samples were examined, e. g., by XPS, Raman, SEM, BET- and contact angle measurements or solubility tests. Cell adhesion and proliferation tests show the improvement of the bucky papers for their use as substrates for cell cultures or toxicity tests.