Polymer removal from electronic grade single-walled carbon nanotubes after gel electrophoresis

摘要: Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNTs) are attractive candidates for next-generation printable semiconductors. However, all current synthesis methods produce s-SWNTs which co-mingled with metallic (m-) SWNTs. Agarose gel electrophoresis has been reported to be an effective technique the separation of from m-SWNTs but removal agarose after proved non-trivial. To remove and organic dispersing agent, specifically chondroitin sulfate in this work, sorted obtained by electrophoresis, we employ multi-step process involving a chlorosulfonic acid (HSO3Cl) wash, base wash thermal annealing. Herein, report detailed analysis effects various steps SWNTs Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, gravimetric (TGA), FTIR-TGA, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy Raman spectroscopy. The polymer-contaminated were dissolved HSO3Cl, then selectively precipitated large excess water, washed (NaOH) finally thermally annealed. A confirmed that final annealed samples contained almost no residual polymers. Field effect transistors also fabricated they showed good performance metrics on/off ratio mobility ∼102 106 ∼2.5–9.5 cm2 V−1 s−1 ranges, respectively. Our method treatment produces clean defect-free tubes may used electronic applications.