Preparing a liquid crystalline dispersion of carbon nanotubes with high aspect ratio

• Keiko Kojima,
• Nodoka Kosugi,
• Hirokuni Jintoku,
• Kazufumi Kobashi and
• Toshiya Okazaki

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 52–58, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.7

• . Keywords: aqueous dispersion; bar-coating; carbon nanotube; coffee-ring effect; liquid crystal; Introduction Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are cylindrical carbon structures with high electrical conductivity and tensile strength in the direction of the tube, anticipated as durable and highly conductive fibers

• film thickness was analyzed by laser confocal microscopy (Figure 5a, Table 1). The average thickness was ≈393 nm, whereas the edge of the film was much thicker (≈999 nm). In earlier studies, the CNTs in the dispersions were observed to flow and accumulate along the droplet's edge due to the coffee ring

• effect [15][33][34]. As a result, the volume fraction of DWCNTs at the edge increased. Notably, the widths of bundled DWCNTs at the edge were larger than in the inner region (Figure 5b,c). The direction of the bundled DWCNTs near the film surface were parallel to the shear direction in both regions. Due