Comprehensive spectral and instrumental approaches for the easy monitoring of features and purity of different carbon nanostructures for nanocomposite applications

A wide series of carbon nanostructures (ranging from fullerenes, through carbon nanotubes, up to carbon nanofibers) promise to change several fields in material science, but a real industrial implementation depends on their availability at reasonable prices with affordable and reproducible degrees of purity. In this study we propose simple instrumental approaches to efficiently characterize different commercial samples, particularly for qualitative evaluation of impurities, the discrimination of their respective spectral features and, when possible, for quantitative determination. We critically discuss information that researchers in the field of nanocomposite technology can achieve in this aim by spectral techniques such as Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetrical analysis, mass spectrometry–hyphenated thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive spectroscopy. All these can be helpful, in applied research on material science, for a fast reliable monitoring of the actual purity of carbon products in both commercial and laboratory-produced samples as well as in composite materials.