Do Inner Shells of Double-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Fluoresce?

Abstract

The reported fluorescence from inner shells of double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) is an intriguing and potentially useful property. A combination of bulk and single-molecule methods was used to study the spectroscopy, chemical quenching, mechanical rigidity, abundance, density, and TEM images of the near-IR emitters in DWCNT samples. DWCNT inner shell fluorescence is found to be weaker than SWCNT fluorescence by a factor of at least 10,000. Observable near-IR emission from DWCNT samples is attributed to SWCNT impurities.