Cause and Consequence of Carbon Nanotube Doping in Water and Aqueous Media

To utilize carbon nanotubes in real-world applications, we have to master their chemistry. At present there is a lack of understanding regarding what happens during basic manipulations, such as doping with acids, forming suspensions by sonication in water with surfactants, or detecting peroxides. We show that sonication of nanotubes in water leads to the in situ formation of molecular oxygen, causing doping, which can be quenched with ethanol. …