Extracting metals with carbon nanotubes: environmental possibilities

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the environmental possibilities of using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for extracting metals, taken into account the characteristics of carbon nanotubes to be used as adsorbents and the influence of different factors on the adsorption processes, among them: kind of carbon nanotubes used as adsorbent, particle size, pH of solutions and diameter and length of carbon nanotubes. Also, some images of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and molecular modeling (Materials Studio Software) obtained by our research group are presented.