Centrifugal Length Separation of Carbon Nanotubes

Published

October 1, 2008

Author(s)

Jeffrey A. Fagan, Matthew Becker, Jae H. Chun, Barry J. Bauer, Jeffrey R. Simpson, Angela R. Hight Walker, Erik K. Hobbie

Abstract

Separation of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by length via centrifugation in a high density medium, and the characterization of both the separated fractions and the centrifugation process are presented. Significant quantities of the separated SWCNTs ranging in average length from < 50 nm to  2 m were produced, with the distribution width being coupled to the rate of the separation. Less rapid separation is shown to produce narrower distributions; these length fractions, produced using sodium deoxycholate dispersed SWCNTs, were characterized by UV-Visible-near infrared absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, Raman scattering and atomic force microscopy. Several parameters of the separation were additionally explored: SWCNT concentration, added salt concentration, liquid density, rotor speed, surfactant concentration, and the processing temperature. The centrifugation technique is shown to support ten milligram per day scale processing and is applicable to all of the major SWCNT production methods: CoMoCat, HiPco, laser ablation, and electric arc. The cost per unit of the centrifugation based separation is also demonstrated to be significantly less than size exclusion chromatography based separations.

Citation

Langmuir

Volume

24

Pub Type

Journals

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Local Download

Keywords

carbon nanotubes, SWCNT, SWNT, deoxycholate, length, centrifugation, separation

Citation

Fagan, J. , Becker, M. , Chun, J. , Bauer, B. , Simpson, J. , Hight, A. and Hobbie, E. (2008), Centrifugal Length Separation of Carbon Nanotubes, Langmuir, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=853635 (Accessed October 11, 2025)