Water Jet as a Promising Tool to Disperse Carbon Nanotubes in Water Solution

This paper is focused on obtaining a homogenous dispersion of carbon nanotubes in water solution treated by the pulsating and continuous water jet technology. Our experimental setup consists of Kärcher HD 6/18 plus pump, ABB robot IRB 6640, pulsating jet generator and Hammelmann nozzle with a diameter d = 0.3 mm. Carbon nanotubes were in the concentration of 0.375 wt%. Three types of samples were prepared. Carbon nanotubes were mixed with no surfactant, half concentration of surfactant and with a standard concentration of surfactant, which was optimized in previous experiments (1.5 wt%). Based on our previous experimental results, we used a naphthalene based superplasticizer. A spectrum of pressures of 1 MPa, 5 MPa, 10 MPa and 15 MPa was used to induce both cavitation and non-cavitation phenomena. Samples were kept in idle state to investigate if they were subject to re-agglomeration. Consequently, all Carbon nanotubes solutions were measured on the Malvern nanosizer.