Enhancing near-infrared photoluminescence from single-walled carbon nanotubes by defect-engineering using benzoyl peroxide

Lukasz Przypis,Tomohiro Shiraki,Yoshiaki Niidome,Maciej Krzywiecki,Haruka Aoki,Dawid Janas

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-76716-9

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been modified with ester groups using typical organic radical chemistry. Consequently, traps for mobile excitons have been created, which enhanced the optical properties of the material. The proposed methodology combines the benefits of mainstream approaches to create luminescent defects in SWCNTs while it simultaneously avoids their limitations. A step change was achieved when the aqueous medium was abandoned. The selection of an appropriate organic solvent enabled much more facile modification of SWCNTs. The presented technique is quick and versatile as it can engage numerous reactants to tune the light emission capabilities of SWCNTs. Importantly, it can also utilize SWCNTs sorted by chirality using conjugated polymers to enhance their light emission capabilities. Such differentiation is conducted in organic solvents, so monochiral SWCNT can be directly functionalized using the demonstrated concept in the same medium without the need to redisperse the material in water.

Highlights

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been modified with ester groups using typical organic radical chemistry
It was reported that upon the combination of raw SWCNTs with a copolymer of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) and bipyridine (PFO-Bpy), (PFO-Bpy, instead of sodium cholate (SC)) [6,5] SWCNTs can be preferentially extracted to toluene20,26
Besides solvent effects, the observed redshift proved that PFO-Bpy copolymer was bound tightly to the surface of the highlighted SWCNT types28,29, explaining its high differentiation selectivity

Summary

Introduction

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been modified with ester groups using typical organic radical chemistry. We describe our strategy of functionalization of SWCNTs using radical organic reagents in toluene. Appropriate conditions for the radical generation were not established in our system too, which explains the observed lack of reactivity of mCPBA with SWCNTs. Since just BPO was successful in the explored parameter space, it was employed for further experiments.

Results

Conclusion