2015-05-042015-05-042012-04-17Tour, James M., Chen, Bo, Flatt, Austen K., Stewart, Michael P., Dyke, Christopher A. and Maya, Francisco, "Methods of attaching or grafting carbon nanotubes to silicon surfaces and composite structures derived therefrom." Patent US8158203B2. issued 2012-04-17. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1911/80087.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/80087The present invention is directed toward methods of attaching or grafting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to silicon surfaces. In some embodiments, such attaching or grafting occurs via functional groups on either or both of the CNTs and silicon surface. In some embodiments, the methods of the present invention include: (1) reacting a silicon surface with a functionalizing agent (such as oligo(phenylene ethynylene)) to form a functionalized silicon surface; (2) dispersing a quantity of CNTs in a solvent to form dispersed CNTs; and (3) reacting the functionalized silicon surface with the dispersed CNTs. The present invention is also directed to the novel compositions produced by such methods.26 ppengUtility patentUS8158203B2