Physico-Chemical nanomaterials science

Stability and zeta potential of the polysiloxane-CNTs suspension
Chodkowski M.1, Sulym I.Y.2, Terpiłowski K.1
1 Department of Interfacial Phenomena, Institute of Chemical Sciences,
Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin (UMCS), pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 3, 20-031 Lublin, Poland. 
E-mail: michal.chodkowski@poczta.umcs.lublin.pl
2 Laboratory of Oxide Nanocomposites, Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry, NASU, 17 General Naumov Str., 03164 Kyiv, Ukraine.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have become interesting material because of they wide use in various fields including energy and environmental applications nowadays. It was reported that adding a small amount of  multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can improve the polymer properties such as mechanical and electrical behaviors [1]. In this case, CNT geometry and the matrix-CNT interphase are the crucial of many parameters which will determine the properties of the CNT-reinforced nanocomposites.
  The suspension were prepared by acid-assisted TEOS hydrolysis in presence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes obtained by catalytic chemical vapour deposition (CCVD) [2] using pyrolysis of propylene on complex metal oxide catalysts [3] followed by modification with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS).
The system stability was investigated by TurbiscanLAB and zeta potential determination. It was found that the suspension thus obtained is stable and possibly suitable for production functional coatings with interesting and controllable properties. The results of these studies will be presented in due course.

1.	Rahmandoust M., Ayatollahi M.R., 2016. CNT-Based Nanocomposites. In: Characterization of Carbon Nanotube Based Composites under Consideration of Defects. Advanced Structured Materials, vol 39, Springer, Cham.
2.	Kartel, M., Sementsov, Yu., Mahno, S., Trachevskiy, V., Bo, W., 2016. Polymer composites filled with multiwall carbon nanotubes. Univ. J. Mater. Sci. 4, 23–31.
3.	Melezhyk, A.V., Sementsov, Yu.I., Yanchenko, V.V., 2005. Synthesis of thin carbon nanotubes on coprecipitated metaloxide catalysts. Russ. J. Appl. Chem. 78, 938–946.