XPS study of C-I covalent bond on Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWNTs)

A simple method was used to synthesize the iodinated multi hydroxylated SWNTs (SWNTols) by the reaction of SWNTols with NaI in the presence of strong oxidant N-chloro-p-toluenesulfonamide. The formation of the C-I covalent bond was verified by comparing the electron binding energies of iodine of I-SWNTols and the reference materials, which were measured with the synchrotron radiation X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (SRXPS) as well as the conventional X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This result will be useful in applications of SWNTs in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences.