Characterization of the DNA-assisted purification of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess outstanding structural, mechanical, and electronic properties. Nevertheless, to achieve their full potential, many problems still need to be solved, including the development of an easy purification procedure, the design of functionalization chemistries that result in increased solubility of the CNTs without altering their properties, and the development of a simple route for the attachment of aligned CNTs on solid substrates. DNA offers a solution to the previous challenges. Recently, DNA-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been prepared by our group and attached on gold by the self-assembling technique [1, 2]. We therefore decided to perform an in-depth study of the DNA-assisted functionalization of SWNTs, which leads to their purification. The results showed a decrease in the SWNTs impurities after functionalization with DNA and demonstrated that the method used is a straightforward and time-effective route for the purification of SWNTs at room temperature. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)