Continuous extraction of highly pure metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes in a microfluidic channel.
Highly pure metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes were continuously extracted from a mixture of semiconducting and metallic species using a nondestructive, scalable method. Two laminar streams were generated in an H-shaped microfluidic channel with two inlets and two outlets. The flow conditions were carefully controlled to minimize diffusive and convective transport across the boundary between the two flows. Dielectrophoretic force from the embedded electrode at the junction extracted metallic nanotubes from a stream of nanotube suspension toward the other stream of buffer solution without nanotubes. The highly pure metallic and enriched semiconducting nanotubes were obtained simultaneously at each outlet using this novel approach. Excellent selectivity was verified by electrical transport measurement, absorption, and Raman spectroscopic analysis.
Nano-Mechanical Systems Research Center, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, 171 Jang-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-343, Korea.
Dong Hun
DH
Shin
Ji-Eun
JE
Kim
Hyung Cheoul
HC
Shim
Jin-Won
JW
Song
Ju-Hyung
JH
Yoon
Joondong
J
Kim
Sohee
S
Jeong
Junmo
J
Kang
Seunghyun
S
Baik
Chang-Soo
CS
Han