Supramolecular discrimination of carbon nanotubes according to their helicity.
Adsorption of specifically designed and geometrically constrained polyaromatic amphiphiles on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) was found to be selective of the nanotube helicity angle. Starting from the same SWNT mixture, photoluminescence and resonant Raman spectroscopies show that a pentacenic-based amphiphile leads to the solubilization of armchair SWNTs and that a quaterrylene-based amphiphile leads to the solubilization of zigzag SWNTs. The results were predicted by the design of the two amphiphiles and are consistent with a supramolecular recognition of the nanotube graphene-type atomic structure by the aromatic part of the molecules through optimized pi-pi-stacking interactions.
Laboratoire de Synthèse Bio-Organique, CNRS-UMR7175/LC1, Institut Gilbert Laustriat, Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Louis Pasteur, 74 route du Rhin, 67401 Illkirch, France.
Renaud
R
Marquis
Carla
C
Greco
Izabela
I
Sadokierska
Sergei
S
Lebedkin
Manfred M
MM
Kappes
Thierry
T
Michel
Laurent
L
Alvarez
Jean-Louis
JL
Sauvajol
Stéphane
S
Meunier
Charles
C
Mioskowski
D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman
D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon