Towards separation of single walled carbon nanotubes with insulator-based dielectrophoresis

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) display large structural and length polydispersity when produced by common methods. Electrical and optical applications therefore could strongly profit from selection and purification methods. Insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP) is an approach to manipulate and fractionate SWNTs that has not been used previously. Here, we studied the iDEP properties of SWNT depending on the sonication time and Zeta potential (ζ) at low frequency (<1 kHz) employing two different geometries. Our study provides useful insight in the iDEP properties of sodium deoxycholate (NaDOC) suspended SWNTs which is essential for further utilizing iDEP in separation and purification applications for SWNTs.

Duke Scholars

Author Christoph F. Schmidt Physics