《Electrochemistry at carbon nanotubes perspective and issues》.pdf

Chemical Communications /chemcomm Number 45 | 7 December 2009 | Pages 6865–7052 ISSN 1359-7345 FEATURE ARTICLE FEATURE ARTICLE Julie V. Macpherson, Patrick R. Unwin et al. Zhongfan Liu et al. Electrochemistry at carbon nanotubes: Raman spectroscopy of strained single- 1359-7345(2009)45;1-T perspective and issues walled carbon nanotubes FEATURE ARTICLE /chemcomm | ChemComm Electrochemistry at carbon nanotubes: perspective and issues Ioana Dumitrescu, Patrick R. Unwin* and Julie V. Macpherson* Received (in Cambridge, UK) 18th May 2009, Accepted 17th August 2009 First published as an Advance Article on the web 23rd September 2009 DOI: 10.1039/b909734a Electrochemistry at carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a large and growing field, but one in which there is still uncertainty about the fundamental activity of CNTs as electrode materials. On the one hand, there are many reports which focus on the favourable electrochemical properties of CNT electrodes, such as enhanced detection sensitivity, electrocatalytic effects and reduced fouling. On the other hand, other studies suggest that CNTs may be no more electroactive than graphitic powder. Furthermore, it has been proposed that the catalytic nanoparticles from which CNTs are formed may dominate the electrochemical characteristics in some instances. A considerable body of the literature presumes that the CNT sidewall is inert and that edge-plane-graphite-