Fluoronanotubes Earn Prestigious R&D Award

Fluoronanotubes, a processed form of carbon nanotubes that opens the door to hundreds of varieties of “designer” nanotubes, have been named one of the 100 most technologically significant products of the year by R&D Magazine.

Conventional single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are hollow tubes of pure carbon that measure just one nanometer, or billionth of a meter, in diameter. They’re excellent conductors of electricity and heat, can be electrical semiconductors, and show tremendous promise for use in advanced composites, sensor technology, fuel cells, and molecular electronics. But a major obstacle to fully exploiting their properties is their tendency to get tangled into knotted bundles.
First prepared at Rice in the laboratory of John Margrave, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Chemistry, fluoronanotubes have unique chemical properties not found in pure carbon nanotubes. By attaching thousands of fluorine atoms to the sides of nanotubes, researchers in Margrave’s group created chemical “handles” that allow chemists and engineers to bind other molecules to their sides to create new materials.

Fluorinating nanotubes also makes it easier for scientists and engineers to exploit their incredible strength. Although SWNTs are 100 times stronger than steel at one-sixth the weight, their tendency to clump together inhibits their use in creating superstrong composite materials. Research by Margrave and others at Rice has shown disentangling SWNTs via fluorination makes it easier to disperse them evenly in polymers and ceramic composites.

Those participating in Margrave’s fluoronanotube research include former doctoral student Edward T. Mickelson, who carried out the first synthesis and characterization of fluoronanotubes; former doctoral students Ivana Chiang and Zhenning Gu, who built upon Mickelson’s work; Robert Hauge, distinguished faculty fellow; Richard E. Smalley, University Professor, the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry, and professor of physics; Valery Khabashesku, faculty fellow; Shyam Shukla, visiting professor of chemistry from Lamar University; Gaëlle Derrien, postdoctoral research associate; graduate students Haiqing Peng, Lei Zhang, and Yu Liu; and undergraduate researchers Joel Stevens, Ian Tonks, Paul Reverdy, and Justin Cratty. The research is sponsored by the Robert A. Welch Foundation and the Texas Advanced Technology Program. Assistance was provided by Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc., Rice’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, and MarChem, Inc.

—Jade Boyd