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Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Sample Purification

Removal of impurities and aggregates from as-grown single walled-carbon nanotube (SWCNT) materials remains an important challenge in nanotube research and applications. We report a simple but effective purification method that uses permanent magnets to remove nanotube aggregates, as well as residual metallic catalyst, from surfactant-coated aqueous SWCNT suspensions. Samples have been characterized by optical absorption, fluorescence and Raman spectroscopies; AFM and near-IR fluorescence microscopies; and TGA. We found that magnetic purification gives samples with reduced absorption backgrounds and high fluorescence efficiencies comparable to those prepared by ultracentrifugation. Nanotubes in magnetically processed HiPco samples are at least 80% individualized. We propose that SWCNT aggregates are preferentially removed because they contain disproportionate amounts of ferromagnetic catalyst particles. As compared to ultracentrifugation, magnetic processing offers major advantages in cost, simplicity, energy consumption, and scalability.