Electrophoretic Analysis and Purification of Fluorescent Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Fragments

TLDR

The study purified arc‑synthesized single‑walled carbon nanotubes via preparative electrophoresis in agarose gel and glass bead matrices and analyzed the resulting fluorescent carbon and short tubular carbon impurities. The purification yielded two major impurities—fluorescent carbon and short tubular carbon—which are promising nanomaterials and suggest the method can be extended to other water‑soluble nanoparticles.

Abstract

Arc-synthesized single-walled carbon nanotubes have been purified through preparative electrophoresis in agarose gel and glass bead matrixes. Two major impurities were isolated: fluorescent carbon and short tubular carbon. Analysis of these two classes of impurities was done. The methods described may be readily extended to the separation of other water-soluble nanoparticles. The separated fluorescent carbon and short tubule carbon species promise to be interesting nanomaterials in their own right.