Degradable conjugated polymers for the selective sorting of semiconducting carbon nanotubes
AssigneeWisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
InventorsPadma Gopalan, Michael Scott Arnold, Catherine Kanimozhi Kansiusarulsamy, Gerald Joseph Brady, Matthew John Shea
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Abstract
Conjugated polymers composed of bi-pyridine units linked to 9,9-dialkyl fluorenyl-2,7-diyl units via imine linkages along the polymer backbone are provided. Also provided are semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes coated with the conjugated polymers and methods of sorting and separating s-SWCNTs from a sample comprising a mixture of s-SWCNTs and metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes using the conjugated polymers.
Claims17
A conjugated polymer having the structure:
- where R represents a functional group comprising an alkyl chain and n represents the number of repeat units in the conjugated polymer.
Polymer-wrapped semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes comprising semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes coated by a conjugated polymer having the structure:
- where R represents a functional group comprising an alkyl chain and n represents the number of repeat units in the conjugated polymer.
A method of separating semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes from a starting carbon nanotube sample comprising a mixture of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes and metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes, the method comprising:
- forming a solution comprising the carbon nanotube sample and a conjugated polymer having the structure:
- where R represents a functional group comprising an alkyl chain and n represents the number of repeat units in the conjugated polymer, wherein the conjugated polymer preferentially coats and disperses the semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes, relative to the metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes, in the solution;
- and
- separating the dispersed single-walled carbon nanotubes from the undispersed single-walled carbon nanotubes to obtain a purified carbon nanotube sample, wherein the purified carbon nanotube sample has a higher ratio of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes to metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes than did the starting carbon nanotube sample.
A method of separating semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes from a starting carbon nanotube sample comprising a mixture of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes and metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes, the method comprising:
- forming a solution comprising the carbon nanotube sample and a conjugated polymer having imine linkages along its polymer backbone chain, wherein the conjugated polymer preferentially coats and disperses the semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes, relative to the metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes, in the solution;
- separating the dispersed single-walled carbon nanotubes from the undispersed single-walled carbon nanotubes to obtain a purified carbon nanotube sample, wherein the purified carbon nanotube sample has a higher ratio of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes to metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes than did the starting carbon nanotube sample;
- and
- heating the conjugated polymer-coated semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes to a temperature at which the backbone of the conjugated polymer thermally decomposes, whereby at least 60 percent, by weight, of the coating of the conjugated polymer is removed from the semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.