Spectroscopic investigation confirms retaining the pristine nature of single-walled carbon nanotubes on dissolution in aniline

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes in all forms are very much insoluble in both organic and inorganic solvents due to its high agglomeration and entangled morphology. General methods for dissolution of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are mostly associated with complexation or polymerization or addition of macromolecules which change the physical or chemical properties of SWNTs and the pristine nature of SWNTs is lost. Dissolution of SWNTs in a solvent like aniline is practiced here which is a very simple reaction method. Here aniline is capable to form a SWNT-aniline charge transfer complex without attachment of macromolecules or polymer which is also soluble in other organic solvents. Solvation of SWNTs by this method is also capable of maintaining the similarity between the structure of SWNTs before and after the dissolution, which means that the pristine nature of SWNTs is preserved. Formation of charge transfer complex in this reaction has been proven by UV-Vis/NIR absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy (FESEM and TEM) are the evidences for protection of the pristine nature of SWNTs even after high-temperature complexation reaction with aniline and also after solubilization in organic solvents.

Keywords

single-walled carbon nanotubes / aniline / dissolution / organic solvent / spectroscopy

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director, CSIR-Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata for permission and extending facilities to carry out the above work. SS acknowledges CSIR for his fellowship. We thank 12 FYP CSIR Network project ESC-0103 for funding the DLS facility. Staff members of Electron microscopy, XRD, FTIR and Central Instrumentation Facility are also acknowledged for their assistance in obtaining data.

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