A method of producing a composite product is provided. The method includes providing a fluidized bed of carbon-based particles in a fluidized bed reactor, providing a catalyst or catalyst precursor in the fluidized bed reactor, providing a carbon source in the fluidized bed reactor for growing carbon nanotubes, growing carbon nanotubes in a carbon nanotube growth zone of the fluidized bed reactor, and collecting a composite product comprising carbon-based particles and carbon nanotubes.

A method of producing a composite product is provided. The method includes providing a fluidized bed of metal oxide particles in a fluidized bed reactor, providing a catalyst or catalyst precursor in the fluidized bed reactor, providing a carbon source in the fluidized bed reactor for growing carbon nanotubes, growing carbon nanotubes in a carbon nanotube growth zone of the fluidized bed reactor, and collecting a composite product comprising metal oxide particles and carbon nanotubes.

Provided is a CNT composite capable of achieving both high detection sensitivity and specific detection when used as a sensor. The carbon nanotube composite includes an aggregation inhibitor (A) and a blocking agent (B) attached to at least a portion of a surface.

Methods and devices for detecting a target agent of interest, e.g., a pathogen, in a sample are described herein. In some embodiments, a sensor is provided that can include a substrate, a graphene layer disposed on a surface of said substrate, and a protein bound to said graphene layer. The protein can be capable of binding to one or more target agents of interest, e.g., pathogens, etc. The binding of the protein to the one or more target agents of interest can generate a change in an electrical property of the graphene layer.

A method termed “superacid-surfactant exchange” (S2E) for the dispersion of carbon nanomaterials in aqueous solutions. This S2E method enables nondestructive dispersion of carbon nanomaterials (including single-walled carbon nanotubes, double-walled carbon nanotubes, multi-wall carbon nanotubes, and graphene) at rapidly and at large scale in aqueous solution without a requirement for expensive or complicated equipment. Dispersed carbon nanotubes obtained from this method feature long length, low defect density, high electrical conductivity, and in the case of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes, bright photoluminescence in the near-infrared.

In one aspect, a composition can include an organelle, and a nanoparticle having a zeta potential of less than −10 mV or greater than 10 mV contained within the organelle. In a preferred embodiment, the organelle can be a chloroplast and the nanoparticle can be a single-walled carbon nanotube associated with a strongly anionic or strongly cationic polymer.

A super-hydrophilic carbon nanotube composite film includes a carbon nanotube layer, a polydopamine layer and a silicon dioxide layer. The carbon nanotube layer includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes and defines two opposite surfaces. The polydopamine layer is on at least one surface of two opposite surfaces of the carbon nanotube layer, and the polydopamine layer includes a plurality of polydopamine nanoparticles. The silicon dioxide layer is on a surface of the polydopamine layer away from the carbon nanotube layer, and the silicon dioxide layer includes a plurality of amino-containing silica nanoparticles, and the plurality of amino-containing silica nanoparticles are grafted onto the surface of the polydopamine layer.

There is provided a pH responsive optical nanoprobe comprising metallic SWCNTs or graphene coated with a transition metal M. The coated metallic SWCNTs or graphene have an absorption spectrum comprising an optical resonance, and have a Raman scattering spectrum responsive to optical excitation at said optical resonance comprising at least one pH-dependent peak having at least one of a Raman shift value and an intensity that is function of a solution pH, when the nanoprobe is in contact with a solution at said solution pH. There is also provided a method to measure the pH of a solution, by contacting the solution with the nanoprobe; illuminating the nanoprobe with an excitation light beam having a wavelength at said optical resonance, thereby generating a Raman signal from the nanoprobe according to said Raman scattering spectrum; measuring a spectral distribution of the Raman signal; and determining the pH of the solution from the spectral distribution.

A fibrous carbon nanostructure dispersion liquid contains a solvent and fibrous carbon nanostructures having at least one absorption peak in a wavenumber region of 500 cm.sup.−1 to 600 cm.sup.−1 in a light absorption spectrum.

A density of a nanofiber sheet can be changed using an edged surface, and in particular an arcuate edged surface. As described herein, a nanofiber sheet is drawn over (and in contact with) an arcuate edged surface. Depending on whether the arcuate surface facing a direction opposite the direction in which the nanofiber sheet is being drawn is convex or concave determines whether the nanofiber sheet density is increased relative to the as-drawn sheet or decreased relative to the as-drawn sheet.