Enhancing interfacial adhesion at the carbon nanotube/titanium interface using ion beam irradiation

The effect of increasing interfacial adhesion at the interface between a layer of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and titanium foil as a result of irradiation with argon ions was discovered and interpreted. Scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize the layer of carbon nanotubes before and after irradiation. The core-level photoelectron spectra of carbon, oxygen and titanium atoms were analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is shown that the increase in adhesion at the “multi-walled carbon nanotubes/Ti” interface is due to the chemical bonding of titanium atoms with oxygen atoms of oxygen-containing functional groups formed on the surface of carbon nanotubes as a result of its irradiation with an ion beam. It is important that in this case the formation of titanium carbides does not occur.