Adsorption of specifically designed and geometrically constrained polyaromatic amphiphiles on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) was found to be selective of the nanotube helicity angle. Starting from the same SWNT mixture, photoluminescence and resonant Raman spectroscopies show that a pentacenic-based amphiphile leads to the solubilization of armchair SWNTs and that a quaterrylene-based amphiphile leads to the solubilization of zigzag SWNTs. The results were predicted by the design of the two amphiphiles and are consistent with a supramolecular recognition of the nanotube graphene-type atomic structure by the aromatic part of the molecules through optimized pi-pi-stacking interactions.
The bundling state of several dry single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) samples is compared using isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC). So as to get different dry samples with various bundling states, the pristine SWNTs were pretreated with a solution of an aromatic amphiphile with or without sonication, washed and dried before being studied by IMC. The bundling state of the different SWNT samples, which was first analyzed by TEM, was then correlated to the obtained IMC data thanks to the interpretation of the observed energy transfer phenomena. From our results, IMC appears to be an interesting technique for the surface probing of dry SWNT samples, and herein for the evaluation of the bundling state.
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