DNA Mediated Solubilization of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

DNA has been recognized as an efficient dispersion agent that individually exfoliate and chirality-fractionate single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) according to their diameter and metallicity. Amongst, single stranded d(GT)n DNA has been known to efficiently disperse individual-level nanotube and mediate their subsequent chirality separation, when eluted from an anion exchange column at various salt concentrations. However, the cost for typical synthetic oligomer, ranging ~25,000$/g, hinders the bulk-scale solubilization and separation of SWCNTs. In this paper, we present a solubilization and separation study of SWCNTs by using salmon sperm DNA (SaDNA), which costs 20$/g as a byproduct from the fishing industry. We show that the SaDNA exfoliates and disperses SWCNTs on a comparable level to d(GT)n oligomer. The NIR and resonance Raman analysis from the solubilized nanotube samples will be presented along with the chirality dependent separation results from SaDNA mediated SWCNT dispersion.