Inventors:
Richard E. Smalley - Houston TX, US
Daniel T. Colbert - Houston TX, US
Hongjie Dai - Sunnyvale CA, US
Jie Liu - Chapel Hill NC, US
Andrew G. Rinzler - Newberry FL, US
Jason H. Hafner - Houston TX, US
Kenneth A. Smith - Katy TX, US
Ting Guo - Davis CA, US
Pavel Nikolaev - Houston TX, US
Andreas Thess - Kusterdingen, DE
Assignee:
William Marsh Rice University - Houston TX
International Classification:
D01F009/12
Abstract:
This invention relates generally to a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) purification process and more particularly to a purification process that comprises heating the SWNT-containing felt under oxidizing conditions to remove the amorphous carbon deposits and other contaminating materials. In a preferred mode of this purification procedure, the felt is heated in an aqueous solution of an inorganic oxidant, such as nitric acid, a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid, or a potassium permanganate. Preferably, SWNT-containing felts are refluxed in an aqueous solution of an oxidizing acid at a concentration high enough to etch away amorphous carbon deposits within a practical time frame, but not so high that the single-wall carbon nanotube material will be etched to a significant degree. When material having a high proportion of SWNT is purified, the preparation produced will be enriched in single-wall nanotubes, so that the SWNT are substantially free of other material.