Polymerization of conducting polymers inside carbon nanotubes

Supercritical carbon dioxide is an universal tool to impregnate carbon nanotubes with a wide range of organic molecules. In this Letter, we present our results of carbon nanotubes filled with the photo-conducting polymer poly(N-vinyl carbazole) and the conducting polymer polypyrrole which were prepared by polymerizing the monomers inside the nanotubes. The endohedral nanotubes were characterized by HRTEM and H-1 NMR which confirmed that the encapsulated material was indeed the conducting polymer. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.