Separation of single-walled carbon nanotubes from graphite by centrifugation in a surfactant or in polymer solutions

Electric arc single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can be separated from their graphitic impurities by a single centrifugation process in a surfactant or in polymer solutions. The purity of SWCNT dispersions, evaluated from near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy measurements, substantially increased after centrifugation at a moderate speed. The supernatant NIR purity was affected by the surfactant choice, following the sequence: sodium cholate ∼ Pluronic F68 > sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate > Pluronic F127 > sodium dodecyl sulfate. NIR purity was also influenced by the centrifugation speed and the pristine SWCNT concentration in the starting dispersion, but not by the surfactant concentration. SWCNT enrichment was not observed in a pure organic solvent (N,N′-dimethylformamide) under identical centrifugation conditions. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrated that graphitic impurities were mostly eliminated from SWCNTs during the centrifugation process in a surfactant or in polymer solutions. Thermogravimetric analysis under CO2 showed that metallic impurities were substantially reduced during the centrifugation process.