Property-structure relationship of nanoscale ionic materials based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Two categories of nanoscale ionic materials (NIMs) based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were obtained. According to the nature of organic modifier and the type of interaction, these NIMs can be divided into two categories referred to as A-MWCNTs-Fs and I-MWCNTs-Fs, respectively. These MWCNT derivatives were virtually solvent-free and showed good flowability even at room temperature. The liquidlike manner of these MWCNT derivatives was from their relatively high organic content and continual departing-recombining motion of the large organic ions as suggested by the comparison of rheological response of the two categories of MWCNT-based NIMs. Thermal property and temperature-dependent and strain-dependent viscoelasticity of MWCNT derivatives were related to the microscopic structure of their coating layer and subsequently related to the configuration, chemistry, and molecular dimension of modifying molecules to establish the property-structure relationship of MWCNT-based NIMs, which could guide our future work on NIMs to appropriate and promising applications based on their tunable and controllable physical properties.