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Updated: Jan 29, 2026

Preparation and Evaluation of Hybrid Composites of Chemical Fuel and Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes in the Study of Thermopower Waves
Published on: April 10, 2015
Rapid and versatile pre-treatment for quantification of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in the environment using
Yang He1, Souhail R Al-Abed2, Phillip M Potter3
1Environmental Engineering and Science Program, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, 2600 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati, OH, 45221, USA.
Abstract:
The concerns regarding potential environmental release and ecological risks of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) rise with their increased production and use. As a result, there is the need for an analytical method to determine the environmental concentration of MWCNTs. Although several methods have been demonstrated for the quantification of well-characterized MWCNTs, applying these methods to field samples is still a challenge due to interferences from unknown characteristics of MWCNTs and environmental media. To bridge this gap, a recently developed microwave-induced heating method was investigated for the quantification of MWCNTs in field samples. Our results indicated that the microwave response of MWCNTs was independent of the sources, length, and diameter of MWCNTs; however, the aggregated MWCNTs were not able to convert the microwave energy to heat, making the method inapplicable. Thus, a pre-treatment process for dispersing bundled MWCNTs in field samples was crucial for the use of the microwave method. In the present paper, a two-step pre-treatment procedure was proposed: the aggregated MWCNTs loaded environmental samples were first exposed to high temperature (500 °C) and then dispersed by using an acetone-surfactant solution. A validation study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the pre-treatment process, showing that an 80-120% recovery range of true MWCNT loading successfully covered the microwave-measured MWCNT mass.
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