IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Nanotubes: Science and Applications Topical Conference Thursday Sessions
       Session NT+EL+NS-ThM

Paper NT+EL+NS-ThM4
Chemical Disentanglement of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Bundles

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 9:20 am, Room 133

Session: Nanotubes: Growth, Functionalization, and Sensors
Presenter: H. Tokumoto, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
Authors: N. Choi, Joint Research Center for Atom Technology (JRCAT), Japan
H. Tokumoto, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
Y. Maeda, Niigata Univ., Japan
T. Wakahara, Niigata Univ., Japan
T. Akasaka, Univ. of Tsukuba, Japan
H. Kataura, Tokyo Metropolitan Univ., Japan
M. Kimura, Tokyo Metropolitan Univ., Japan
S. Suzuki, Tokyo Metropolitan Univ., Japan
Y. Achiba, Tokyo Metropolitan Univ., Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit unique electronic and mechanical properties and chemical stability that cannot be realized in other materials, and therefore can be an important material in nanotechnology. Many applications have been demonstrated in the fi elds of materials science and technology, molecular electronic devices, and reliable probe tips for scanning probe microscopy. However, as-grown CNTs contain various contaminants such as catalysts and amorphous carbons, and have various lengths from a fe w nano-meters to milli-meters, and various sizes of bundles. These prevent us to use CNTs for various applications. Then, we have to develop several important key techniques such as how to purify, how to control length, how to disentangle the bundles, and how to disperse individuals in solvents. An important and essential technique to realize these keys is believed to be the chemical modification of CNTs combined with their sonication and centrifugation. In this paper, we will show the chemical process an d their characterization techniques. After purifying single-walled CNTs, we put them into N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) at a concentration of 0.4 mg/10 ml with the small amount of amine. At the same time, we sonicated and centrifuged them under optimized ti m e, frequency and rotational speed. At each step, we measured a transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a Raman scattering spectroscopy, and an atomic force microscopy (AFM). These three techniques have proved that our technique has indeed worked out properly. Especially, the chemical modification of the CNT ends was confirmed by the AFM observation of CNTs covalently attached to gold colloidal particles.