Viscoelasticity of a carbon nanotube-laden air-water interface.

The viscoelasticity of a carbon nanotube (CNT)-laden air-water interface was characterized using two different experimental methods. The first experimental method used a Langmuir-Pockels (LP) trough coupled with a pair of oscillating barriers. The second method is termed the Bicone-Trough (BT) method, where a LP trough was custom-built and fit onto a rheometer equipped with a bicone fixture to standardize the preparation and conditioning of a particle-laden interface especially at high particle coverages.

Surface pressure and microstructure of carbon nanotubes at an air-water interface.

This article reports the surface pressure and microstructure of two different types of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at an air-water interface; namely, as-produced CNTs (nf-CNTs) and CNTs functionalized with carboxyl groups (f-CNTs). Both types of CNTs formed 3D aggregates upon compression using a Langmuir-Pockels trough. However, f-CNTs showed a lower degree of aggregation compared with that of nf-CNTs.