Effect of solvents and dispersants on the bundle dissociation of single-walled carbon nanotube

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are severely restricted in their applications, as they exist in rope-like bundles. Recently, J. Coleman et al. demonstrated a spectroscopic method to monitor bundle dissociation in low concentration polymer-nanotube dispersions.' The method relies on the measurement of the ratio of free-polymer to the nanotube-bound polymer in the SWCNT-polymer solutions via luminescent spectroscopy. A theory has been developed to transform this data into the bundle surface area, which is of course related to the bundle size. This method clearly shows that individual, isolated SWCNT are stable in low concentration dispersions. In an effort to broaden the understanding of the physical processes governing the NT de-bundling a short-chain molecule has been examined. We found a strong dependence of the concentration at which individual NTs become stable-with the nature of the solvent.