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Optically active single-walled carbon nanotubes

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 361–365 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The optical, electrical and mechanical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are largely determined by their structures, and bulk availability of uniform materials is vital for extending their technological applications1. Since they were first prepared2,3, much effort has been directed toward selective synthesis and separation of SWNTs with specific structures. As-prepared samples of chiral SWNTs contain equal amounts of left- and right-handed helical structures4, but little attention has been paid to the separation of these non-superimposable mirror image forms, known as optical isomers. Here, we show that optically active SWNT samples can be obtained by preferentially extracting either right- or left-handed SWNTs from a commercial sample. Chiral ‘gable-type’ diporphyrin molecules bind with different affinities to the left- and right-handed helical nanotube isomers to form complexes with unequal stabilities that can be readily separated. Significantly, the diporphyrins can be liberated from the complexes afterwards, to provide optically enriched SWNTs.

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Figure 1: Chiral nano-tweezers used to separate left- and right-handed isomers of chiral SWNTs.
Figure 2: Schematic representation of the separation of left-handed (LH) and right-handed (RH) SWNTs with a chiral diporphyrin, (S)-1.
Figure 3: CD and VIS–NIR spectra of nano-tweezers ((R)- and (S)-1) and their complexes with SWNTs (SWNTs:(R)-1 and SWNTs:(S)-1) in methanol.
Figure 4: CD and UV–VIS–NIR spectra of SWNTs extracted with (R)- and (S)-1 after removal of the chiral nano-tweezers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Y. Kawai (Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology) for allowing us to use the CD spectropolarimeter, Y. Nakata and I. Hamagami (Horiba) for taking photoluminescence spectra, T. Mori (Osaka University) for helpful suggestions for CD of SWNTs, N. Yoshimoto, T. Itabashi, S. Yamada (Hitachi) and A. Toshimitsu (Kyoto University) for their encouragement, and M. Uchida (Osaka Prefecture University) for proof-reading the manuscript. This work was financially supported by Integrative Industry-Academia Partnership including Kyoto University, NTT, Pioneer, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Chemical and Rohm.

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Author notes

  1. Sumanta Bhattacharya

    Present address: Present address: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India,

  2. Xiaobin Peng and Naoki Komatsu: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Shiga University of Medical Science, Seta, 520-2192, Otsu, Japan

    Xiaobin Peng, Naoki Komatsu, Sumanta Bhattacharya, Takanori Shimawaki & Takahide Kimura

  2. International Innovation Organization, Kyoto University, Nishikyo-ku, 615-8520, Kyoto, Japan

    Xiaobin Peng

  3. Department of Materials Science, Osaka Electro-Communication University, Neyagawa, 572-8530, Osaka, Japan

    Takanori Shimawaki & Shuji Aonuma

  4. Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Atsuhiro Osuka

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Contributions

X.P., N.K. and A.O. conceived and designed the experiments. T.K. and S.A. provided suggestions on the experiments. X.P. performed most of the experiments and analyses. T. S. contributed to solubilization of SWNTs. X.P. and S.B. carried out the theoretical calculations. N.K. and A.O. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Naoki Komatsu.

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Peng, X., Komatsu, N., Bhattacharya, S. et al. Optically active single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature Nanotech 2, 361–365 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.142

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