Interactions between Carbon Nanotubes and Liquids: Imbibition and Wetting

We report on our progress to extend the current experimental measurements of interactions between fluid and materials to times and length scales characteristic of nanomaterials. The rapid imbibition of decane and nonpolar fluids by carbon nanotubes is investigated to confirm recent theoretical results obtained using MD simulations. The wetting dynamics of carbon nanotubes and larger carbon fibres (~200 nm) are studied as a function of the liquid. We outline the main experimental challenges both in terms of time resolution and force sensitivity necessary for reliable experiments at these scales and present the first result of in-situ TEM observations of wetting of carbon nanotubes.