CBE Seminar - Carlos Silvera Batista

Interfacial and Hydrodynamic Behavior of Colloidal SWCNTs

Abstract

Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are a family of materials with unique and outstanding physical properties, that can advance applications in composites, energy conversion, bio-sensing and bio-imaging. Furthermore, SWCNTs constitute excellent model systems of colloidal nanorods. Nonetheless, dispersion in liquid media aided by surfactants and biomolecules, as well as the separation by type, are essential requirements for using SWCNTs in technological applications or as model systems. The key to the dispersion and separation of SWCNTs is the manipulation of their interface. Despite its crucial importance, the behavior and conformation of the interfacial layer is not understood, while structural characterization has been minimal. In this talk, I will explore the close relationship between the interfacial arrangement of surfactant molecules and the interaction potential, as well as the corresponding effect on dispersion and separation processes. I will also discuss the power of analytical ultracentrifugation to measure the hydration and surfactant binding density. Finally, I will discuss the use of colloidal SWCNTs  and  sedimentation  velocity  experiments  to  study  the
fundamental hydrodynamic behavior of nanorods.

Bio

Dr. Carlos A. Silvera Batista was born in Cartagena, a tropical city in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. He initiated undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at the Universidad de San Buenaventura (Cartagena) and subsequently obtained a bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York. Silvera Batista earned a doctorate from the University of Florida, after working with Professors Kirk Ziegler and Jason Butler on the processing and characterization of the interfacial properties of carbon nanotubes. He later became a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Working with Dr. Jeffrey Fagan, he developed bulk methods based on sedimentation for the length and interfacial characterization of SWCNTs. He is currently a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan. His work in the lab of Prof. Nicholas Kotov focuses on the chiral properties of NPs and their assembly.