In Situ Coating Carbon Nanotubes with PbS Nanocrystals

A facile and effective method of in situ coating multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) with PbS nanocrystals was introduced, which includes acid treatment of MWNTs, in situ introduction of sulfur precursor through the acid-base reaction between 2-mercatoethylamine and the -COOH groups on the surface of MWNTs and hydrothermal treatment in the following procedure. The samples were characterized by TEM, XRD and FTIR. TEM images showed that carbon nanotubes were nearly fully coated with a layer of PbS, and the coating layer was 10-20nm in thickness. A tentative mechanism was proposed to explain the results.