Photofunctional Dispersants for Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have attracted a lot of attention as a result of their various applications, for instance, transistors, supercapacitors, sensors and so on. However, the industrial applications of SWCNTs have been hindered by their insolubility in many solvents. In order to improve their handling processes, we have investigated an excellent and photochemically tunable dispersant for SWCNTs, based on photoreaction of the dispersant in aqueous solution. The dispersant can be utilized in some application fields of SWCNTs. By the combining procedure, high-speed centrifugation using the dispersant, we have demonstrated a new purification method for SWCNTs without destroying the intrinsic SWCNT structures. Photopatterned SWCNT thin films are easily fabricated by adsorption/desorption processes of the dispersant in solid films.