Scanning Electron Microscope Observation of Carbon Nanotubes with Room Temperature Ionic Liquids: Effect of Their
Abstract:
In this study, we succeeded in acquiring scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of carbon nanotube (CNT) derivatives with different surface properties based on an electro-conductive pretreatment using a room temperature ionic liquid (IL). The quality of the obtained SEM images depended on their surface properties and the hydrophilicities of IL used. When the hydrophilicities of both the sample surface and the IL were close, the obtained SEM images had a high resolution. In contrast, SEM imges of samples pretreated with an IL, which had different hydrophilicities from the sample, was observed with low resolution and low quality. This result suggests that the relationship between both hydrophilicities is the dominant factor for this visualization method.
