This article is devoted to the investigation of the sensing behavior of chemically treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) at room temperature. Chemical treatment of MWNTs was carried out with a solution of either sulfuric or chromic acids. The materials obtained were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman-spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The active layer of chemiresistive gas sensors was obtained by cold pressing (compaction) at 11 MPa of powders of bare and treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The sensing properties of pellets were investigated using a custom dynamic type of station at room temperature (25 ± 2 °C). Detection of NO2 was performed in synthetic air (79 vol% N2, 21 vol% O2). It was found that the chemical treatment significantly affects the sensing properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which is indicated by increasing the response of the sensors toward 100–500 ppm NO2 and lower concentrations.

To date, the research on carbon nanomaterials has progressed rapidly. More than 400 papers were written in 2021 on the application of carbon nanomaterials in various fields. The high demand for the use of such materials has increased due to a sharp increase in the demand for semiconductor materials and materials for supercapacitor electrodes and other electrical devices. Despite the unique physical properties of carbon nanomaterials, there are limitations to their use. To solve this problem, various methods of modifying the surface, both through chemical interactions and physical adsorption, were proposed. One of these methods is chemical modification. The evaluation of effect of chemical treatment parameters on the properties of carbon nanomaterials is an urgent task due to the fact that the chemistry of the processes is poorly understood. In this work, the effect of concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids on the change of specific surface area, elemental composition, composition of functional groups, and also on the change of specific capacitance was considered. It is believed that both the porosity and the functional groups formed during oxidation contribute to the change in specific capacitance. The specific surface area of all samples decreased on average by a factor of 1.5–3 after the chemical treatment. Different oxygen and sulfur-containing functional groups are observed after the chemical treatment. The highest specific capacitance of the treated carbon nanofibers was 114 F/g.

This work is dedicated to the study of the treatment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with dichromic acid. The dichromic acid was formed by dissolving different concentrations of CrO3 in water. The effect of the concentration of dichromic acid on the change in texture characteristics, elemental composition, defectiveness, graphitization degree, and surface chemistry of MWCNTs was investigated using various analytical techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Testing of MWCNTs as electrodes for supercapacitors in 3.5 M H2SO4 solution was carried out using cyclic voltammetry. A decrease in the average diameter of CNTs after treatment was found. The EDX and XPS showed that the oxygen content on the surface of MWCNTs increased after treatment with dichromic acid. The formation of Cr2O3 after treatment with dichromic acid was detected by XPS. High angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy was used to confirm the intercalation of the chromium-containing compound between graphene layers of MWCNTs after treatment with dichromic acid. It was found that two different types of MWCNTs showed diverse behavior after treatment. The highest specific capacitance of the MWCNTs after treatment was 141 F g−1 (at 2 mV s−1) compared to 0.3 F g−1 for the untreated sample.