Influence of the zeta potential on the dispersability and purification of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

We report a systematic study of the purification of nitric acid treated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) by centrifugation at constant pH. The progress of the purification procedure was followed by estimating the purity by solution-phase near-infrared spectroscopy, and it was found that the sediment obtained by centrifugation at pH 2 had the highest purity. The stability of the aqueous dispersions of SWNTs and carbonaceous impurities (CIMP) after nitric acid treatment was investigated by measuring their zeta potential and the concentration of acidic sites. We found that, at lower pH, the CIMP has a higher zeta potential than nitric acid treated SWNTs, and it is this factor that allowed the separation of the carbonaceous impurities via centrifugation and the concomitant purification of the SWNTs.