True solutions of single-walled carbon nanotubes for assembly.pdfVIP

LETTERS PUBLISHED ONLINE: 1 NOVEMBER 2009 | DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2009.302 True solutions of single-walled carbon nanotubes for assembly into macroscopic materials Virginia A. Davis1,2 †, A. Nicholas G. Parra-Vasquez1,2 ‡, Micah J. Green1,2 †‡, Pradeep K. Rai1,2 ‡, 1,2 1,2 1 4 4 Natnael Behabtu , Valentin Prieto , Richard D. Booker , Judith Schmidt , Ellina Kesselman , 5 1 1 1,3 5 4 Wei Zhou , Hua Fan , W. Wade Adams , Robert H. Hauge , John E. Fischer , Yachin Cohen , Yeshayahu Talmon4, Richard E. Smalley1,3§ and Matteo Pasquali1,2,3 * Translating the unique characteristics of individual single- properties, and their high aspect ratio (greater than 500) and walled carbon nanotubes into macroscopic materials such as strong van der Waals attraction13 make dispersion exceedingly dif- fibres and sheets has been hindered by ineffective assembly. ficult. Most SWNT fluids are surfactant-stabilized suspensions Fluid-phase assembly is particularly attractive, but the ability achieved through sonication10, although SWNTs can also be dis- to dissolve nanotubes in solvents has eluded researchers for persed via sidewall functionalization14 or reduction using alkali over a decade. Here, we show that single-walled nanotubes metals15. The dissolution of a few parts per million of pristine form true thermodynamic solutions in superacids, and report SWNTs in N-methylpyrrolodine (NMP) is a recent major achieve- the full phase diagram, allowi