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Dissolution of Full-Length Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Jian Chen,^† Apparao M. Rao,^† Sergei Lyuksyutov,^‡ Mikhail E. Itkis,^† Mark. A. Hamon,^† Hui Hu,^† Robert W. Cohn,^‡ Peter C. Eklund,^† Daniel T. Colbert,^§ Richard E. Smalley,^§ and Robert C. Haddon*^†

Departments of Chemistry and Physics, Advanced Carbon Materials Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055, Carbon Solutions, Inc, A 152 ASTeCC Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0286, ElectroOptics Research Institute, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292, and Department of Chemistry and Physics, Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251

J. Phys. Chem. B, 2001, 105 (13), pp 2525–2528

DOI: 10.1021/jp002596i

Publication Date (Web): March 10, 2001

†

Advanced Carbon Materials Center and Carbon Solutions, Inc., University of Kentucky.

Present address: Zyvex LLC, 1321 North Plano Road, Richardson, TX 75081.

‡

University of Louisville.

Present address: Departments of Chemistry and Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0403.

Rice University.

Corresponding author. E-mail: haddon@ucr.edu.

Abstract

Full-length single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were rendered soluble in common organic solvents by noncovalent (ionic) functionalization of the carboxylic acid groups present in the purified SWNTs. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that the majority of the SWNTs ropes were exfoliated into small ropes (2−5 nm in diameter) and individual nanotubes with lengths of several micrometers during the dissolution process. The combination of multiwavelength laser excitation Raman scattering spectroscopy and solution-phase visible and near-infrared spectroscopies was used to characterize the library of SWNTs that is produced in current preparations. The average diameter of metallic nanotubes was found by Raman spectroscopy to be smaller than that of semiconducting nanotubes in the various types of full-length SWNT preparations. This observation sheds new light on the mechanism of SWNT formation.

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