Plasma Modification of Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered to be the ultimate reinforcing agent for high performance polymer composites and many potential applications have been proposed. However, processing difficulties in obtaining homogeneous dispersions of CNTs or the potentially weak interfacial interaction between the CNTs and different media have resulted in systems with properties that fall short of the expectations associated with the promise of CNTs. In order to overcome these difficulties and fully explore the exceptional properties of CNTs their functionalization has become a fundamental step. Although there are many methods available for the treatment of CNTs, most of them are not attractive for application in an industrial scale. Plasma modification of CNTs on the other hand is a green and fast method which has gained great attention recently due to its many advantages. In this review we summarize the results reported on plasma modification of CNTs to date. Analysis of the types of plasma generation methods, gases and experimental conditions used in the literature is presented. The spectroscopy techniques more often used to characterize the chemical groups attached to the CNT surfaces treated via plasma are briefly presented.