Optimization of Carbon Nanotube Dispersions in Water Using Response Surface Methodology
Open accessAbstract
The aim of this work was to demonstrate an optimization methodology to reliably obtain stable macrodispersions (i.e., for ≥24 h) of carbon nanotubes in water using sonication. Response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to assess and optimize the sonication parameters for the process. The studied input parameters were (i) sonication time (duration), (ii) amplitude (of vibration), and (iii) pulse-on/off (duration) of the sonicator. The analyzed responses were mean diameter and size distribution of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) aggregates in water, which were measured by the dynamic light scattering technique. A semiempirical model was developed and statistically tested to estimate the magnitude of sonicator parameters required to obtain specified MWNT macrodispersions (i.e., aggregates’ mean diameter and distribution) in water. The results showed that MWNT aggregates of 2 ± 0.5 μm can be obtained by optimizing sonicator parameters to a sonication time of 89 s, amplitude of 144 μm, and pulse-on/off cycle of 44/30 s. These process settings for 100 mg/L MWNTs in a 30 mL aliquot of deionized water would consume 863 J/mL of sonication energy. Contrary to the popular belief, “sonication time” and/or “sonication energy input” were not found to be proportional to the degree of dispersion of MWNTs in water. This might be the reason for the frequent disparity and nonreproducibility of sonication results reported in scientific literature, especially for dispersing nanomaterials in a number of different systems. The amplitude of vibration was noted to be the most sensitive parameter affecting MWNT aggregates’ diameter and distribution in water. The characterization of MWNTs was performed using electron microscopy, surface area analyzer, thermogravimetric analyzer, and zeta potential analyzer. This study can be helpful in evaluating sonication dispersion of particulate matter in other incompressible fluids such as graphene dispersion in organic solvents.
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The RSM model exhibited satisfactory approximation of actual Cr(VI) adsorption removal, with a high correlation coefficient R2 of 0.99, implying that 99% of variations in results can be attributed to studied factors.
“The RSM model exhibited satisfactory approximation of the actual Cr(VI) adsorption removal (%), as demonstrated by the high correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.99 (Fig. 3), implying that 99% of the variations in the results can be attributed to the studied factors34,35.”
From Optimized removal of hexavalent chromium from water using spent tea leaves treated with ascorbic acid (2022) · cites this paper as [34]
The Materials and Methods section describes RSM models for carbon-nanotube dispersion, not Cr(VI) removal. Model Fitting and Analysis reports good agreement between predicted and observed nanotube measurements, but does not report an R² of 0.99 or attribute 99% of variation in Cr(VI) removal to studied factors. Searches for Cr(VI), chromium adsorption, and the claimed value found no relevant passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Zaib, Q., & Ahmad, F.
- Affiliations
- Khalifa University of Science and Technology (AE)
- Corresponding author
- Ahmad, Farrukh
- Venue
- ACS Omega
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2019-01-10
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 849-859
- ISSN
- 2470-1343 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6648579
- OpenAlex
- W2910353206
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- ACS Omega (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Carbon Nanotubes in Composites
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Ultrasound and Cavitation Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Graphene research and applications
- Keywords
- carbon nanotubes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, ultrasonic dispersion, sonication time, nanotube aggregates, aggregate size distribution, sonication energy, semi-empirical model
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