Abstract
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are typically produced as a mixture of different lengths and electronic types. Methods for sorting these as-produced mixtures typically require damaging and unscalable techniques to first overcome the strong bundling forces between the nanotubes. Previously, it has been shown that negatively charging SWCNTs can lead to their thermodynamically driven, gentle dissolution in polar solvents, and moreover that this process can selectively dissolve different SWCNT species. However, there are several conflicting claims of selectivity that must be resolved before the full potential of this method for scalably postprocessing SWCNTs can be realized. Here we carefully investigate dissolution as a function of charge added to the as-produced SWCNT sample, using a range of complementary techniques. We uncover a far richer dependence on charge of SWCNT dissolution than previously imagined. At low values of charge added, amorphous carbons preferentially dissolve, followed sequentia...
Highlights
Despite advances in selective synthesis,[1−3] as-grown singlewalled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) samples typically consist of a mixture of lengths (0.1 μm−several μm), diameters (0.4−5 nm), and electronic types,[4] tightly held together in bundles which are decorated in residual metal catalyst and amorphous carbon.[5]
The percentages of the nanotubide salts that spontaneously dissolved in the DMF (Figure 1) were obtained via three methods: ultraviolet− visible−near-infrared (UV−vis−NIR) absorption, membrane filtration of the solute, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the nanotubide solutions
The most suitable method to evaluate the yield of dissolution was determined to be membrane filtration, since it measures the entirety of the SWCNT sample
Summary
Despite advances in selective synthesis,[1−3] as-grown singlewalled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) samples typically consist of a mixture of lengths (0.1 μm−several μm), diameters (0.4−5 nm), and electronic types (approximately 1:2 metallic, mSWCNTs to semiconducting sc-SWCNTs),[4] tightly held together in bundles which are decorated in residual metal catalyst and amorphous carbon.[5] Many “postsynthesis” methods that aim to refine this mix into homogeneous samples have been explored. Most of these methods rely on processes that are detrimental to the pristine properties of the SWCNTs and/or are difficult to scale. Undissolved fractions as (NaCx)UND, where NaCx is the stoichiometry of the nanotubide salt after ammoniation
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