Synthesis of β-Cyclodextrin / Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes nanohybrid

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered one of the most popular types of nanomaterials and in the last few years have gained tremendous interest and offer ample opportunity for unprecedented performance in the field of “smart” nanomedicines. There is a growing body of work showing that CNT fate in vivo is highly dependent on their purity, physical properties (i.e., length, diameter, etc.), and chemical nature (i.e., functionalization). Chemically functionalized CNTs have shown great advantages as delivery systems because of their capacity to pierce cellular membranes and translocate directly into the cytoplasm, providing a method for effective drug and macromolecule intracellular transport [1]. Native and functionalized cyclodextrins have recently emerged as multifunctional supramolecular agents capable of dispersing CNTs by noncovalent interaction and introducing molecular recognition sites into the materials. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were covalently modified with water-soluble -cyclodextrin through ester bond and used to capture the aromatic pollutant from wastewater [2]. In this study, the aim was to modify the MWCNTs with -CD through ‘click’ coupling (Fig. 1). This nanohybrid was fully characterized by XPS, XRD, UV-Vis, SEM, FEG-SEM, TGA and TEM measurements.