Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (10): 2757-2762.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB20100932

• PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND SPECTROSCOPY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of NaCl on the Separation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Agarose Gel Electrophoresis

WEN Xiao-Nan1,2, ZHANG Jing1,2, GU Wen-Xiu1, JIN He-Hua2, LI Hong-Bo2, LI Qing-Wen2   

  1. 1. School of Chemical & Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu Province, P. R. China;
    2. Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215125, Jiangsu Province, P. R. China
  • Received:2010-04-26 Revised:2010-07-02 Published:2010-09-27
  • Contact: GU Wen-Xiu,LI Qing-Wen E-mail:guwenxiu@yahoo.com.cn, qwli2007@sinano.ac.cn
  • Supported by:

    The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20903069).

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Abstract:

Plenty of attention has been paid to obtaining single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) with single conductive properties so that they can be applied in various fields. Among the separation techniques used for metallic (m-) and semiconducting (s-) single-walled carbon nanotubes, agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE) is thought to be a relatively simple and low-cost method. In this work, we used UV-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) absorption spectroscopy to study the effect of NaCl on the separation of SWCNT by AGE. Our results show that the addition of NaCl greatly influences the separation of the SWCNT. At a NaCl concentration of less than 70 mmol·L-1, the relative content of s -SWCNT increased after separation and at a NaCl concentration of higher than 70 mmol·L-1, the separation of m-SWCNT and s-SWCNT was restrained as the concentration of NaCl increased. At a NaCl concentration of 160 mmol·L-1, the separating efficiency of the system dropped markedly. We suggest that the addition of NaCl may change the adsorption properties of the surfactant towards m-SWCNT and s-SWCNT.

Key words: Single-walled carbon nanotubes, Agarose gel electrophoresis, UV-visible-near infrared absorption spectrum, Separation, NaCl