Separation of single-walled carbon nanotubes using aqueous two-phase system

•PEG, dextran, NMP and CTAB are used to form a new aqueous two-phase system.•Metallic carbon nanotube species increased in the top phase after separation.•Semiconducting carbon nanotube species increased in the bottom phase after separation.•Varying the molecular weight of PEG changes the volume ratio and purification outcome.

The separation of metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (M-SWCNTs) from semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (S-SWCNTs) in as-received SWCNTs is an important step to integrate carbon nanotubes into electronic applications. In this study, the effect of molecular weight (Mw) of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the separation of M-SWCNTs from as-received SWCNTs using aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) consist of PEG, dextran, organic solvent N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and water has been investigated. PEG with Mw 6000 and 10,000 showed higher partition coefficient (K) and yield (Y). The semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (S-SWCNT) was attracted to the bottom phase. Varying the concentration of PEG 6000 and dextran could enrich the purity of M-SWCNT in the top phase to 0.2574 compared to the pristine value of 0.1506. The volume ratio (VR) that gave the highest enrichment of M-SWCNT is found to be 1.5. However, there was no significant changes in purification factor (PF) and purity when the concentration of NMP and water were manipulated. This finding provides a solid foundation for the studies of ATPS to separate different species of SWCNTs.