Effective Purification of SWNTs Based on Combined Method

Being a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) with low purity will affect its unique properties and potential applications, so the purification is an essential issue to be studied. Here a novel multistep method is presented to remove impurities from SWNTs effectively. The advantage of this method is that physical and chemical methods are used alternately to remove almost all the impurities. The high purity of 90% was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and thermo gravimentric analysis for the purified SWNTs. For the purpose of comparing the results of this method, hyderogen peroxide H2O2 has been tried to oxidize the impurities with high inoxidative replacing the mixed acid, which will have a remarkable influence on the purification of SWNTs in the future.