Application of Isotope Tracer Technique on the Study of the Filling and Release Behavior of Carbon Nanotubes

The behaviors of washing and release of~(110)Ag~m-AgNO_3 from carbon nanotubes (CNTs), following soak of opened CNTs in~(110)Ag~m-AgNO_3 solutions are investigated with the isotope tracer technique. The filled CNTs samples are characterized by HREM, SEM, XRD and EDS. The amount of filled materials is also estimated by the isotope tracer technique. It shows that there are silver materials filled in the CNTs and would not release from the cavities. The results indicate that radioactive tracer is an effective and powerful technique to be applied into study of filling and release behaviors of CNTs as well as estimating the amount of filled materials.