title: Industrial-scale separation of high-purity single-chirality single-wall carbon nanotubes for biological imaging.
abstract: Single-chirality, single-wall carbon nanotubes are desired due to their inherent physical properties and performance characteristics. Here, we demonstrate a chromatographic separation method based on a newly discovered chirality-selective affinity between carbon nanotubes and a gel containing a mixture of the surfactants. In this system, two different selectivities are found: chiral-angle selectivity and diameter selectivity. Since the chirality of nanotubes is determined by the chiral angle and diameter, combining these independent selectivities leads to high-resolution single-chirality separation with milligram-scale throughput and high purity. Furthermore, we present efficient vascular imaging of mice using separated single-chirality (9,4) nanotubes. Due to efficient absorption and emission, blood vessels can be recognized even with the use of ∼100-fold lower injected dose than the reported value for pristine nanotubes. Thus, 1 day of separation provides material for up to 15,000 imaging experiments, which is acceptable for industrial use.
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan.
authors.forename: Yohei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yomogida
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: CNT-Application Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan.
authors.forename: Minfang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan.
authors.forename: Masako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yudasaka
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromichi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kataura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002845:Chromatography / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D061848:Optical Imaging; D013237:Stereoisomerism
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon