1g of multi wall carbon nano tubes(MWCNTs) and graphene are added to two test tubes containing vegetable oil. The tubes were left undisturbed. It was found that mwcnts settled much faster than graphene. Plese share the possible reasons for the same.
Note: the oil samples were sonicated using a probe sonicator for 1 hr. All experimental conditions were identical.
Dear Shubrajit Bhaumik,
my first question is the MWCNT were purified from the catalyst? If yes, then in accordance to your question, the possible explanation of this phenomena is maybe related to actual contact surface and thus drag (fluid resistance) between carbon nanomaterial and oil. I found this equation of the force opposite to the gravitational force.
Fdrag=1/2ρv2ACD
where ρ is the density of the oil, v is the velocity of the object, A is the projected area, and CD is the drag coefficient (a function of shape). I assume that 1D nanotubes (especially multi-walled CNT with much inferior area compared to single-walled CNT) have smaller area than 2D graphene. But maybe there is more explanation behind the phenomena you observed.
Adam Moyseowicz
It also depends on the size of each nanotube compared to the size of each graphene flake
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