Innovative chemistry and nanotechnology-based surface engineering of hydrophobic tungsten disulfide (WS2) Inorganic Nanotubes (WS2-INTs) - novel nanoscale functional Bio-Active Inorganic ?NanofillersR

摘要

Tungsten disulfide nanotubes (INTs-WS2) are extremely hydrophobic and chemically inert inorganic nanomaterials. This feature quite strongly limits their usefulness in numerous mechanical hardness and tribology-relating research developments and subsequent industrial/bio-active endapplications. Thus, the covalent versatile linkage of any kind of functional organic and/or biology-relating species remains a quite critical developmental step towards highly innovative high-performance nanomaterials and multiphase composites in the field of essential interfacial versatile chemistries. In such a highly challenging methodology/ functionalization issue context concerning these chemically inert hydrophobic nanomaterials, an innovative method of surface functionalization (versatile polycarboxylation ??? polyCOOH shell formation) of multi-walled inorganic nanotubes (INTsWS2) and fullerene-like (IFs-WS2) nanoparticles has been successfully developed. This covalent functionalization method makes use of highly electrophilic and reactive imminium salts (Vilsmeier-Haack (VH) complexes-reactions) in order to enable the introduction of a chemically versatile polyacidic (polyCOOH) shell onto the surface of VH-treated inorganic nanomaterials. Moreover, a significant statistical Design Of Experiments (DoE) method has been also involved for global optimization of this multi-parametric polyCOOH shell generation.