Underwater Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube/Coacervate Composites

Tan-Phat Huynh; Nina Kølln Wittig; Amanda Andersen; Fiona Linnea Bach-Gansmo; Henrik Birkedal

doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c00715

Underwater Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube/Coacervate Composites

Tan-Phat Huynh^*, Nina Kølln Wittig, Amanda Andersen, Fiona Linnea Bach-Gansmo, Henrik Birkedal^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Soft conductive materials are of interest for a wide range of applications, but their syntheses have remained difficult. Herein, we present a convenient route for underwater fabrication of a composite made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and mussel-inspired complex coacervates. The key to success of this method is that CNTs were solubilized very effectively in protocoacervates, which are high-concentration solutions of polyelectrolytes at a pH where only one of them is charged, thereby impeding coacervate formation. Composite materials were formed by the simple injection of CNT-dispersed protocoacervate solutions into water under ambient conditions. The method is simple, fast, and ecofriendly, and composites of CNT-complex coacervate in the form of films or bulk materials were obtained. The composites demonstrated electrical conductivity and tunable mechanical properties, which depended on the concentration of polyelectrolytes and the CNT:protocoacervate ratio. Hence, the composites can be manipulated to attain diverse properties, for examples, tunable reduced modulus (15 to 32 GPa) and hardness (0.3 to 0.7

Original language	English
Journal	Langmuir
Volume	40
Issue	25
Pages (from-to)	13010-13016
Number of pages	7
ISSN	0743-7463
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c00715
Publication status	Published - 25 Jun 2024

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title = "Underwater Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube/Coacervate Composites",

abstract = "Soft conductive materials are of interest for a wide range of applications, but their syntheses have remained difficult. Herein, we present a convenient route for underwater fabrication of a composite made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and mussel-inspired complex coacervates. The key to success of this method is that CNTs were solubilized very effectively in protocoacervates, which are high-concentration solutions of polyelectrolytes at a pH where only one of them is charged, thereby impeding coacervate formation. Composite materials were formed by the simple injection of CNT-dispersed protocoacervate solutions into water under ambient conditions. The method is simple, fast, and ecofriendly, and composites of CNT-complex coacervate in the form of films or bulk materials were obtained. The composites demonstrated electrical conductivity and tunable mechanical properties, which depended on the concentration of polyelectrolytes and the CNT:protocoacervate ratio. Hence, the composites can be manipulated to attain diverse properties, for examples, tunable reduced modulus (15 to 32 GPa) and hardness (0.3 to 0.7",

author = "Tan-Phat Huynh and Wittig, {Nina K{\o}lln} and Amanda Andersen and Bach-Gansmo, {Fiona Linnea} and Henrik Birkedal",

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AU - Huynh, Tan-Phat

AU - Wittig, Nina Kølln

AU - Andersen, Amanda

AU - Bach-Gansmo, Fiona Linnea

AU - Birkedal, Henrik

PY - 2024/6/25

Y1 - 2024/6/25

N2 - Soft conductive materials are of interest for a wide range of applications, but their syntheses have remained difficult. Herein, we present a convenient route for underwater fabrication of a composite made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and mussel-inspired complex coacervates. The key to success of this method is that CNTs were solubilized very effectively in protocoacervates, which are high-concentration solutions of polyelectrolytes at a pH where only one of them is charged, thereby impeding coacervate formation. Composite materials were formed by the simple injection of CNT-dispersed protocoacervate solutions into water under ambient conditions. The method is simple, fast, and ecofriendly, and composites of CNT-complex coacervate in the form of films or bulk materials were obtained. The composites demonstrated electrical conductivity and tunable mechanical properties, which depended on the concentration of polyelectrolytes and the CNT:protocoacervate ratio. Hence, the composites can be manipulated to attain diverse properties, for examples, tunable reduced modulus (15 to 32 GPa) and hardness (0.3 to 0.7

AB - Soft conductive materials are of interest for a wide range of applications, but their syntheses have remained difficult. Herein, we present a convenient route for underwater fabrication of a composite made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and mussel-inspired complex coacervates. The key to success of this method is that CNTs were solubilized very effectively in protocoacervates, which are high-concentration solutions of polyelectrolytes at a pH where only one of them is charged, thereby impeding coacervate formation. Composite materials were formed by the simple injection of CNT-dispersed protocoacervate solutions into water under ambient conditions. The method is simple, fast, and ecofriendly, and composites of CNT-complex coacervate in the form of films or bulk materials were obtained. The composites demonstrated electrical conductivity and tunable mechanical properties, which depended on the concentration of polyelectrolytes and the CNT:protocoacervate ratio. Hence, the composites can be manipulated to attain diverse properties, for examples, tunable reduced modulus (15 to 32 GPa) and hardness (0.3 to 0.7

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Underwater Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube/Coacervate Composites

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