Separation of single-walled carbon nanotubes by gel-based chromatography using surfactant step-gradient techniques and development of new instrumentation for studying SWCNT reaction processes

Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) synthesis methods such as CoMoCATTM, HiPcoTM, pulsed laser vaporization (PLV), and catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) produce several different distributions of (n,m) SWCNT structures, where ( n,m) defines the nanotube diameter and chiral wrapping angle. Post-synthesis processing such as functionalization and/or separations must therefore be employed to yield high purity electronic or single (n,m) samples. Through the use of a surfactant gradient across a gel-based chromatographic column, separations of single (n,m) species can be achieved. Anionic surfactants such as SDS, SDBS, and AOT display different separation effectiveness for single (n,m) species. Results of near-infrared optical absorption for separated SWCNT surfactant suspensions will be discussed, leading to a broader understanding of the important factors necessary for the gel chromatography separation technique. In particular, the effects of SWCNT/surfactant micelle structure are found to be key to achieving fast, simple SWCNT electronic type separations. Additionally, development of new instrumentation for the near-infrared spectrofluorimetric analysis (NIR-SFA) of SWCNTs is useful to the advancement of fundamental SWCNT research and applications. NIR-SFA, for instance, allows for the (n,m) structures of a sample to be identified and monitored during the progress of a chemical reaction or separation experiment. Seeking to achieve the time resolutions necessary for such experiments, the design and optimizations of a system utilizing single-wavelength excitation by diode lasers coupled with a fast NIR detection system are presented.