Supercritical synthesis and characterization of SWNT-based one dimensional nanomaterials.

The present study developed a novel, fast and efficient method to synthesize one dimensional nanotube-based materials via supercritical reactions and supercritical fluids. It was proved that supercritical organic fluids were good media to take materials into the nanocavity, not only as solvents but also as reaction agents. Different kinds of metals (Ni, Cu, Ag) and fullerenes (C(60), C(70), C(78), C(84), Gd@C(82), Er@C(82), Ho@C(82), Y@C(82)) were successfully inserted into nanotubes with small diameters by this technique, with various supercritical fluids such as C(2)H(5)OH, CH(3)OH or C(6)H(5)CH(3). The filling rates were proved to be more than 90%. The high filling efficiency and the properties of the as-generated materials were characterized by TEM, Raman, EDS and XPS. In principle, this technique can be applied to construct new types of nanomaterials, if we choose the appropriate supercritical reaction and fluid in the CNTs. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011