## 3 Results  
### Structural Characterization and Material Properties of the Nanofilers  
The infrared spectra of CNWs, CNWs-ox and CNWs-ODA are shown in Figure 1. The spectrum of CNWs (a) is typical for carbonaceous materials, and shows a broad absorption envelope in the frequency region of 1700-1000 cm\({}^{-1}\), exhibiting three maxima at around 1561, 1360 and 1200 cm\({}^{-1}\). According to previous studies on graphitized carbon, these peaks can be assigned to the asymmetric and symmetric stretching vibrations of the -COO\({}^{-}\) units close to aromatic rings [22; 23]. These peaks are representative of the presence of carbonyl groups on CNWs. The third band at 1200 cm\({}^{-1}\) is attributed to stretching vibrations of the C-O groups, ether or hydroxyl groups. On the other hand, the spectrum of CNWs-ox sample (b) is indicative of oxidation of the carbon surface after its chemical treatment with acids. For instance, the development of a band at 1725 cm\({}^{-1}\), the band shift from 1561 to 1580 cm\({}^{-1}\). and the decrease of the absorption at 1360 cm\({}^{-1}\). At the same time, a significant increase in the absorption with a maximum at 1200 cm\({}^{-1}\) can be observed. These changes are assigned to the protonation of the carbonyl groups. Specifically, the band at 1725 cm\({}^{-1}\) is attributed to the asymmetric stretching vibrations of the carboxyl groups (COOH), whereas the absorption band at 1580 cm\({}^{-1}\) to the symmetric stretching vibrations of the same groups. The amplification of the absorption at 1200 cm\({}^{-1}\) is assigned to the incensement of the number of carboxyl. The successful addition of octadecylamine molecules decorated CNWs surface is apparent at CNWs-ODA spectrum (c) and specifically from the appearance of new bands. The band at 1571 cm\({}^{-1}\) corresponds to the asymmetric bending vibrations of N-H bonds from the NH\({}_{2}\) groups of ODA. At the asymmetric stretching vibrations of the same groups, NH\({}_{2}\) is also attributed to the weak band at\(\sim\)3300 cm\({}^{-1}\). Furthermore, bands appearing at 2918 and 2851 cm\({}^{-1}\) are attributed to stretching vibrations from C-H bonds of the acylic chain of ODA (vibrations from CH\({}_{2}\) and CH\({}_{3}\) groups, respectively), as well as the absorptions at 1467 and 1385 cm\({}^{-1}\). The strong absorption that is caused by the carbonate chains of ODA covers in a big degree the remaining features from the CNWs except for the previously observed bands at 1571 and 1610 cm\({}^{-1}\)[24; 25]. Figure 2 shows the DTA (a) and %TG (b) curves for the CNWs and CNWs-ODA. Both samples show very sharp exothermic peaks at 350 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 446 \({}^{\circ}\)C, respectively, which corresponds to the combustion of the carbon material. Additionally, each sample shows another exothermic peak at 375 \({}^{\circ}\)C (CNWs) and 325 \({}^{\circ}\)C (CNWs-ODA). In the case of CNWs, this peak can be attributed to the presence of various surface functional groups or more graphitic carbon species, whereas in the case of organo-modified CNWs, this peak corresponds to the combustion of the surface functional organic groups of octadecylamine. Figure 1: FT-infrared spectra of samples: carbon nanowires (CNWs), oxidized CNWs (CNWs-ox) and CNWs-ODA. Figure 2: Differential thermal (DTA) (**a**) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) (**b**) curves of CNWs and CNWs-ODA samples. From the TGA curve of CNWs, the sample has estimated that it possesses about 15% of its weight moisture that it has naturally adsorbed from the material. The modified sample, CNWs-ODA, shows only a minor mass change until 100 \({}^{\circ}\)C proving the alteration of the nature of the sample from hydrophilic to hydrophobic [26]. Additionally, once again, the incensement of the thermal stability is obvious. The graphitic characteristics of CNWs, CNWs-ox and CNWs-ODA samples were studied by Raman spectroscopy and are shown in Figure 3a. The spectra of all samples exhibit the G and D-bands that generally characterize the graphitic structures with defects on its matrix.