be washed with distilled water next the oxidized mwcnts are extracted from the first mixture the filtrate resulting from can for example be dried in a vacuum oven for about 24 hours at 40 u00b0 c to 20 extract the oxidized mwcnts it should be understood that it is difficult to do phenol particle deposition onto the surface of mwcnts while controlling the homogeneity of the aforementioned deposition by the conventional methods since the surface of mwcnts is rather neutral it is known however to a person skilled in the art that oxygen containing functional groups such as u2014 cooh and u2014 oh play an important role in anchoring metal nanoparticles onto the walls of mwcnts with reference now to fig1 of the drawings this image shows the fourier transform infrared spectrum of oxidized mwcnts as shown in the figure absorbance bands of hydroxyl functional groups carbonyl groups and the carbon to carbon double bonds hereinafter u201c c u2550 c u201d appear at 3440 1700 and 1590 and 1400 cm u2212 1 respectively these surface functional groups provide active sites for the interaction with phenol molecules hence the extent of phenol deposition on the surface of the carbon nanotubes depends on the density of the aforementioned surface functional groups functionalized mwcnts are then added to a polymerization ampoule equipped with a magnetic stirrer and a vacuum inlet monohydrate citric acid is also added to the ampoule and it is sealed under vacuum subsequently the mixture is heated water which is a byproduct of the reaction is removed by the vacuum inlet and the reaction temperature is raised preferably to about 140 u00b0 c the polymerization continues under dynamic vacuum the resulting mixture is then cooled and dissolved.