**Author details**

Vlad Popa-Nita1,⋆, Valentin Barna1, Robert Repnik2 and Samo Kralj2,3

<sup>⋆</sup> Address all correspondence to: v.popanita@gmail.com


University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

3 Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

#### **References**


10.5772/50896

165

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**Chapter 8**

**Toward Greener Chemistry Methods for Preparation of**

**Hybrid Polymer Materials Based on Carbon Nanotubes**

Recent technological advances and the need for materials with new functionalities and bet‐ ter performance have generated an enormous demand for novel materials. Nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess outstanding mechanical, electrical, thermal and chemical properties which make them ideal for a wide variety of current or future applica‐

The incorporation of CNTs to polymer matrices have demonstrated to improve the mechani‐ cal, electrical, thermal and morphological properties of the produced nanocomposites [2]; however, the full exploitation of CNTs has been severely limited due to difficulties associat‐ ed with dispersion of entangled CNTs during processing, and their poor interfacial interac‐ tion with the polymer matrix. Therefore, significant efforts have been directed toward improving the dispersion of CNTs by means of surface modification either by non-covalent

Most strategies designed to functionalize CNTs involve the use of strong acids as reagents and organic solvents as reaction media, which can become environmental pollution and health hazard problems. Nowadays, the global environmental trends are seeking greener chemistry methods to prepare materials, thus, there is plenty of room for developing envi‐

> © 2013 Ávila-Orta et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 Ávila-Orta et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

tions [1], especially for the preparation of multifunctional *hybrid polymer materials*.

Carlos Alberto Ávila-Orta, Pablo González-Morones,

Aidé Sáenz-Galindo and Lluvia Itzel López-López

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

functionalization or covalent functionalization [3].

ronmentally-friendly chemistry methods to functionalize CNTs.

Carlos José Espinoza-González, Juan Guillermo Martínez-Colunga, María Guadalupe Neira-Velázquez,

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/51257

**1. Introduction**
