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On-chip purification via liquid immersion of arc-discharge synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotubes

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Abstract

Arc-discharge synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (AD-MWNT) have been proven to be of high quality, but their use is very limited due to difficulties in obtaining them in a clean and undamaged form. Here, we present a simple method that purifies raw AD-MWNT material in laboratory scale without damage, and that in principle can be scaled up. The method consists of depositing raw AD-MWNT material on a flat substrate and immersing the substrate slowly in water, whereby the surface tension force of the liquid–substrate contact line selectively sweeps away the larger amorphous carbon debris and leaves relatively clean MWNTs on the substrate. We demonstrate the utility of the method by preparing clean individual MWNTs for measurement of their Raman spectra. The spectra exhibit the characteristics of high-quality tubes free from contaminants. We also show how one concomitantly with the purification process can obtain large numbers of clean suspended MWNTs.

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Acknowledgments

M.Sc. Hannu Pasanen is acknowledged for his help with the preliminary experiments, and M.Sc. Roope Lehto and Prof. Jussi Timonen for useful discussions. Dr. Sami Malola is acknowledged for producing the 3D illustration in Fig. 7b. Author Matti J. Hokkanen gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Finnish National Graduate School in Material Physics (NGSMP) and the National Doctoral Programme in Nanoscience (NGS-NANO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Nanoscience Center, University of Jyvaskyla, P. O. Box 35, 40014, Jyvaskyla, Finland

    Matti J. Hokkanen, Saara Lautala, Dongkai Shao & Markus Ahlskog

  2. Department of Physics, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland

    Tuomas Turpeinen

  3. Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience Center, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland

    Juha Koivistoinen

Authors
  1. Matti J. Hokkanen
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  2. Saara Lautala
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  6. Markus Ahlskog
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Correspondence to Markus Ahlskog.

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Hokkanen, M.J., Lautala, S., Shao, D. et al. On-chip purification via liquid immersion of arc-discharge synthesized multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Appl. Phys. A 122, 634 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-0154-0

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