Large-scale single-chirality separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes by simple gel chromatography

Abstract

Monostructured single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are important in both scientific research and electronic and biomedical applications; however, the bulk separation of SWCNTs into populations of single-chirality nanotubes remains challenging. Here we report a simple and effective method for the large-scale chirality separation of SWCNTs using a single-surfactant multicolumn gel chromatography method utilizing one surfactant and a series of vertically connected gel columns. This method is based on the structure-dependent interaction strength of SWCNTs with an allyl dextran-based gel. Overloading an SWCNT dispersion on the top column results in the adsorption sites of the column becoming fully occupied by the nanotubes that exhibit the strongest interaction with the gel. The unbound nanotubes flow through to the next column, and the nanotubes with the second strongest interaction with the gel are adsorbed in this stage. In this manner, 13 different (n, m) species were separated. Metallic SWCNTs were finally collected as unbound nanotubes because they exhibited the lowest interaction with the gel.

Nanoscale Charge Percolation Analysis in Polymer‐Sorted (7,5) Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotube Networks

“…[14,15] This has a big impact on many opto-electronic applications, and especially in microelectronics, where the presence of metallic SWNTs, even at concentrations of few parts per thousand, could dramatically degrade device performances. [2,15] To overcome this issue, various post-synthetics sorting methods have been recently developed, such as gel chromatography, [16] density gradient ultracentrifugation [17] and polymer wrapping [18][19][20][21] . Among these methods, polymer wrapping with conjugated polymers, such as polyfluorene-based derivatives, [18][19][20][21] is the simplest and most effective way of dispersing and sorting semiconducting SWNTs with specific diameters.…”

Chirality-controlled synthesis of single-wall carbon nanotubes using vapour-phase epitaxy

“…As the electronic property of an SWCNT strongly depends on its chirality, the lack of synthetic control in chirality has long been recognized as a fundamental impediment in the science and application of SWCNTs. Previous efforts to address this issue have resulted in significant progress in separation of synthetic mixtures, yielding predominantly single-chirality nanotube species [11][12][13][14][15] . However, separation processes are limited by their small scale, high cost and short length (o500 nm) of the resulting chirality-pure nanotubes.…”

“…Our strategy is to combine nanotube separation with synthesis to achieve controlled growth of nanotubes with preselected chirality. Tremendous progress has been made in recent years in SWCNT separation [11][12][13][14][15]25,26 . In particular, DNA-based chromatographic separation allows purification of both semiconducting and metallic single-chirality SWCNTs through the use of different DNA sequences 12,26 .…”

From metal/semiconductor separation to single‐chirality separation of single‐wall carbon nanotubes using gel

“…In addition, the electric field was determined not to be required for the separation [16], and the continuous column method was developed [17]. Most recently, the single-chirality separation of SWCNTs using a multicolumn with a polysaccharide gel, cross-linked dextran, was reported [21]. These column separation methods have various advantages in terms of purity, yield, rapidity, throughput, automation and cost.…”