±êÌ⣺ Strategies for Post-Synthesis Alignment and Immobilization
of Carbon Nanotubes
×÷ÕߣºTamara Druzhinina , Stephanie Hoeppener , and Ulrich S. Schubert
ͻ񻣼 Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have developed into a standard material used as
a building block for nanotechnological developments. Based on the unique
properties that make CNTs useful for many different applications in nanotech-
nology, optics, electronics, and material science, there has been a rapid devel-
opment of this research area and many different applications have emerged
in the past few years. Frequently, the alignment and immobilization of CNTs
play an important role for many applications and different strategies, in
particular post-synthesis approaches, can be applied. Recent developments of
different techniques to immobilize and align carbon nanotubes are discussed
and classifi ed into three main categories: chemical immobilization and align-
ment, physical immobilization and alignment, and the use of external fi elds
for these purposes. Many of the techniques involve multiple steps and may
also cross these rather crudely defi ned boundaries. As such, the techniques
are classifi ed according to their most important or unique step. |