title: Spontaneous exfoliation of single-walled carbon nanotubes dispersed using a designed amphiphilic peptide.
abstract: We have observed concentration dependent exfoliation of single-walled carbon nanotubes dispersed in solutions of the synthetic peptide nano-1. As the nanotube concentration is reduced, the bundle diameters tend to decrease before saturating at <2.0 nm for concentrations below 6 x 10(-3) mg/mL. The fraction of individual nanotubes increases with decreasing concentration, saturating at approximately 95% at low concentration. This concentration dependent exfoliation happens even if the dispersions are not sonicated on dilution, albeit over a longer time scale. The populations both of individual nanotubes and of bundles are much higher than expected at high concentrations, indicating the presence of repulsive internanotube interactions stabilizing the dispersions.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nicolosi
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cathcart
authors.forename: Alan R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Dalton
authors.forename: Damian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aherne
authors.forename: Gregg R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Dieckmann
authors.forename: Jonathan N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Coleman
mesh_terms: D015195:Drug Design; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D010455:Peptides; D013501:Surface-Active Agents