Dispersion of pristine carbon nanotubes using conjugated block copolymers

A complete dispersion of both single-wall and multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to individual tube level is achieved using a conjugated block copolymer without chemical modification of the pristine CNTs. The block copolymer contains two structural segments, a conjugated poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) segment and a polystyrene (PS) segment. The P3HT block forms pi-pi interactions with CNTs, while the polystyrene block provides a good solubility to the debundled carbon nanotubes. This approach is generic for carbon nanotube dispersion.