Journal
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 4, Issue 12, Pages 830-834Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2009.302
Keywords
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Funding
- Office of Naval Research [N00014-01-1-0789]
- AFOSR [FA9550-06-1-0207]
- AFRL [FA8650-07-2-5061, 07-S568-0042-01-C1]
- NSF CAREER
- USA-Israel Binational Science Foundation
- Evans-Attwell Welch Postdoctoral Fellowship
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Translating the unique characteristics of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes into macroscopic materials such as fibres and sheets has been hindered by ineffective assembly. Fluid-phase assembly is particularly attractive, but the ability to dissolve nanotubes in solvents has eluded researchers for over a decade. Here, we show that single-walled nanotubes form true thermodynamic solutions in superacids, and report the full phase diagram, allowing the rational design of fluid-phase assembly processes. Single-walled nanotubes dissolve spontaneously in chlorosulphonic acid at weight concentrations of up to 0.5wt%, 1,000 times higher than previously reported in other acids. At higher concentrations, they form liquid-crystal phases that can be readily processed into fibres and sheets of controlled morphology. These results lay the foundation for bottom-up assembly of nanotubes and nanorods into functional materials.
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