Efficient covalent functionalisation of carbon nanotubes: the use of “click chemistry”

Amongst the different classes of nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are extremely promising for applications in electronics, solar energy conversion, materials science and medicinal chemistry. However in order to use them for those applications an accurate control of the functionalisation of the nanotubes is required. Many reactions can be performed on the [small pi]-conjugated framework of CNTs (i.e. cycloadditions, radical additions or halogenations). These reactions, although very efficient, require, in general, experimental conditions which are weakly compatible with sensitive organic or biological compounds. The emergence of new or re-actualised synthetic methods (known under the term of "click chemistry") has the potential to provide an elegant protocol to prepare carbon nanotube-based functional materials. This review will gather the recent results described in the literature using "click chemistry" to functionalise carbon nanotubes.