Morphology and elemental quantitative analyses of pristine and purified MWCNTs (1 mg/mL sample on silica wafer) were performed on a Hitachi S-4700 Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation) containing a S-4700 detector combining secondary (SE) and backscattered (BSE) electron detection and operating at 20 KV. For Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX) results are shown as weight percent of a given element relative to the most dominant element present in the sample.
The average length distribution of the pristine and purified MWCNTs was evaluated using tapping mode Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) performed in air (Asylum Research, AC240TS, 50 to 90 kHz). At least 3 scans of 10 μm × 10 μm were acquired for each of the sample being analyzed and a minimum of 30 individual MWCNTs were measured to obtain an average length distribution.