High-Purity Diamagnetic Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Buckypaper

Abstract

We describe a novel purification process for single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) materials that removes non-nanotube carbon and reduces ferromagnetic impurities to levels at which native SWNT magnetic properties predominate. Ferromagnetism is reduced from 1.04 to less than 0.013 emu/g by magnetic gradient filtration. This procedure creates samples of sufficient quality for spectroscopies such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The overall cleanliness and purity of the material is confirmed through NIR absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, C60 filling experiments with yields exceeding 90%, and high-resolution 13C NMR.