Electronic, Electrical, and Magnetic Behavioral Change of SiO₂-NP-Decorated MWCNTs

Silicon-oxide-nanoparticle (SiO₂-NP) heteroatoms were decorated/deposited onto multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) surface to tune the properties of MWCNTs for electronic and magnetic applications. To achieve this objective, SiO₂-NPs and MWCNTs were prepared and suspended together into toluene and heated at <100 °C for the formation of MWCNTs/SiO₂-NP nanocomposites. A change in the microstructure, electronic, electrical, and magnetic behaviors of MWCNT nanocomposites decorated/deposited with silicon content was investigated using different techniques, viz., scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for structural, compositional, and electronic structure, while current-voltage was used for electrical properties and field-dependent magnetization and electron spin resonance techniques were used for magnetic properties. The results indicated that SiO₂-NPs adhered onto MWCNTs, resulting in variation in the material conductivity with the Si-NP content. The coercivity of MWCNT nanocomposites adhered with 1.5 atom % Si-NPs (H _C@40 K = 689 Oe) is higher than that of those adhered with 5.75 atom % Si-NPs (H _C@40 K = 357 Oe). In general, the results provide information about the possibilities of tuning the electronic, electrical, and magnetic properties of MWCNTs by adherence of SiO₂-NPs onto them. This tuning of material properties could be useful for different electronic and magnetic device applications.