Solution Sorting of 10 µm Long Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) that are ultralong (>10 µm) and electronically pure may enable stretchable thin film transistors, ballistic conductors, and ultra-strong fibers. However, nanotubes are cut to short pieces (typically less than 1 µm) by sonication during solution processing. In this presentation, I will discuss an invention from our lab called “superacid-surfactant exchange (S2E)” which allows for non-destructive dispersion and scalable sorting of ultralong SWCNTs in aqueous solutions. The length of the isolated SWCNTs readily reaches 10 µm, with a narrow distribution. We further show that these ultralong nanotubes can be further sorted by electronic type to attain an electron mobility exceeding 90 cm² V^-1 s^-1 in fabricated thin film transistors.