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Inner- and outer-wall sorting of double-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) consist of two coaxially aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), and previous sorting methods only achieved outer-wall electronic-type selectivity. Here, a separation technique capable of sorting DWCNTs by semiconducting (S) or metallic (M) inner- and outer-wall electronic type is presented. Electronic coupling between the inner and outer wall is used to alter the surfactant coating around each of the DWCNT types, and aqueous gel permeation is used to separate them. Aqueous methods are used to remove SWCNT species from the raw material and prepare enriched DWCNT fractions. The enriched DWCNT fractions are then transferred into either chlorobenzene or toluene using the copolymer PFO–BPy to yield the four inner@outer combinations of M@M, M@S, S@M and S@S. The high purity of the resulting fractions is verified by absorption measurements, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, resonance Raman mapping and high-density field-effect transistor devices.

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Figure 1: Separation of DWCNTs via gel permeation.
Figure 2: Absorption spectra of the four different types of DWCNT.
Figure 4: Transconductance measurements of four types of DWCNT.
Figure 3: Radial breathing mode resonance Raman maps.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the experimental assistance of J. Zaumseil and S. Grimm and thank K. Moore and A. Blanch for discussions. B.S.F. acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, under grants nos. FL 834/1-1 and FL 834/2-1). R.K. acknowledges funding by the DFG under INST 163/354-1 FUGG. R.K. and F.H. acknowledge support by the Helmholtz Association through the STN programme. G.G. and S.R. acknowledge the German Research Foundation (DFG, via SFB 658, subproject A6) and Focus Area NanoScale of the Freie Universität Berlin for financial support.

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B.S.F., H.L. and F.H. devised and performed the DWCNT separation. G.G., S.W., A.J., R.K., S.R., H.L. and B.S.F. performed and analysed the resonance Raman maps. TEM measurements were performed by V.S.K.C., S.K.C.N., H.L. and B.S.F. All authors contributed to the preparation of the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Han Li or Benjamin Scott Flavel.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Li, H., Gordeev, G., Wasserroth, S. et al. Inner- and outer-wall sorting of double-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature Nanotech 12, 1176–1182 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2017.207

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