I have commercially fabricated MWCNTs and I wish to activate them with nickle zinc ferrite nanoparticles. I have tried to heat both objects together upto 400 for two hours and then stirred and sonicated them but they nanotubes and particles are still separate and no nano particles are attached to CNTs. SOme advice will be appreciated. Thanks
May I suggest that you try deposition through chemical reduction followed by calcination in a reducing atmosphere. I don't know the specifics required for bimetallic nanoparticles but I have some experience with Ni on carbon support.
The strategy that worked best was to precipitate nickel acetate using excess NaOH and then calcine the composites in a hydrogen atmosphere to reduce to metallic Ni. Ofcourse you could also try CO or a mixture thereof. I don't see a reason why this could not be adapted for both Ni and Fe. However, I am not sure if there would be coprecipitation at the same sites. I would also suggest to use more powerful reducing agents (sodium borohydride or the like) such that particles do not have time for site-selective precipitation.
I have also seen some papers where insitu photoreduction of metals is also possible upon exposure to deep UV after soaking the supports in a solution of the required metals, but I am not personally familiar with such methods.
In the end, you might have to resort to trial and error approach to see what works best for you.
I hope it helps.
I think the problem is that there is no link between your CNT and nanoparticles.
Simply heating and sonicating both in solution will disperse them, but does not imply they will attach/form a composite.
The easiest way to fabricate oxide particles on CNT is by fuctionalization of CNT, and which carboxylic groups on functionalized CNT can adsorb to oxide particles.
Carboxylic functionalized MWCNTs is different from MWCNTs. However, the dispersion of nanoparticles can be applied for
its penetration into the pores of MWCNTs using an ultrasonic bath.
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