Page 360 - Polymer-based Nanocomposites for Energy and Environmental Applications

Modification of polymer nanocomposites and significance of ionic liquid 327

fields, for example, additives in ionic liquids lubricants, electrode in super-
capacitors, and quasi-solid-state electrolyte for dye-sensitized solar cells and sup-
port for metal nanoparticles. IL-layered graphene sheets offer big surface area
with rich nucleation sites for increasing nanoparticles. While the structure building
block for graphitic materials, graphene has involved extensive consideration in elec-
trochemical biosensors ever since it exposed [18]. Several electrochemical biosen-
sors based on IL-graphene multicomponent together with hemoglobin have been
investigated [71–73].

11.12 Function of ionic liquids as electrolyte
for carbon nanotube supercapacitors

Carbon nanotubes are extremely prone to some, restricting their brilliant properties,
mostly the ability to take in many compounds on their surface. Since then, carbon nan-
otubes and ionic liquids have fascinated enormous interest, and their application in
diverse fields from electrochemistry to polymer composites has been widely used.
Carbon nanotube-ionic liquid-based hybrids propose the probability to get better tool
performances and to extend novel multifunctional materials that incorporate the par-
ticular properties of both components, for example, the high electric conductivity and
tensile strength of carbon nanotubes with the high ionic conductivity and salvation
facility of ionic liquids. Supercapacitor based on ionic liquid electrolyte has been
reported using a variety of carbon-material-based electrodes like carbon nanotubes
[74], graphene [75], and activated carbon [76]. The wonderful electric, thermal,
and mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes can be estimated to be the cause of
a range of applications.
However, carbon nanotubes are complicated to practice because of their small dis-
persibility and their affinity to shape aggregates; this individually so with single-
walled carbon nanotubes, which are closely tangled with one another and need a bril-
liant solvent to ease employ in potential applications. It has been reported that
imidazolium ion-based ionic liquids isolated carbon nanotubes superior than usual
organic solvents [78]. In comparison, imidazolium ionic liquids interact with carbon
nanotubes during weak van der Walls forces relatively than the prior so-called
“cation-π” interaction. It has been constituted that the imidazolium-based cationic ring
of ionic liquid displays a stable interface among the carbon nanotube surface via π-π
electron bonding. A “π-π” interaction protecting form is projected to report for the
diffusion method of carbon nanotube in imidazolium ionic liquids that is revealed
in Fig. 11.5. The method after diffusion of single-walled carbon nanotubes in
imidazolium-based ionic liquids by molecular modeling and spectroscopic studies
has been reviewed [77]. Today, scientists form advanced biosensors through excellent
biocompatibility and great sensitivity by connecting ionic liquid/carbon nanotube
nanocomposites with dissimilar enzymes in few functions. Inside these biosensors,
ionic liquids present fine thermal strength and high ionic conductivity, whereas carbon
nanotubes uphold the electron-transfer rate among electrode and enzyme.