Functionalization of carbon nanotubes with pyrene derivatives for electrostatic deposition on aminosilanized glass substrates

In this work, we optimized the method to non-covalently functionalize carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with several pyrenes derivatized with a carboxylic acid group. By employing a facile physisorption-based modification of the CNT surface, it is possible to obtain several favorable results without any substantial damage to the CNT structure. Besides, functionalized CNTs thin films were deposited on glass substrates treated with different concentrations of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). We found that CNT thin films could be formed on the glass surface if the glass surface were properly treated with the APTES solution. We also evaluated the robustness of CNT thin films by adhesion test using water jetting from a wash bottle. Our results indicate that the interfacial adhesion between glass substrates and CNTs were facilitated by the electrostatic interactions between the functionalized amino groups of the glass slides and carboxyl groups of CNTs.