title: Highly selective dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes using aromatic polymers.
abstract: Solubilizing and purifying carbon nanotubes remains one of the foremost technological hurdles in their investigation and application. We report a dramatic improvement in the preparation of single-walled carbon nanotube solutions based on the ability of specific aromatic polymers to efficiently disperse certain nanotube species with a high degree of selectivity. Evidence of this is provided by optical absorbance and photoluminescence excitation spectra, which show suspensions corresponding to up to approximately 60% relative concentration of a single species of isolated nanotubes with fluorescence quantum yields of up to 1.5%. Different polymers show the ability to discriminate between nanotube species in terms of either diameter or chiral angle. Modelling suggests that rigid-backbone polymers form ordered molecular structures surrounding the nanotubes with n-fold symmetry determined by the tube diameter.
authors.affiliation: Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nish
authors.forename: Jeong-Yuan
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Doig
authors.forename: Robin J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Nicholas
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic / Q000737:chemistry*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids; D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D011108:Polymers