Pure-chirality single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) possess well-defined optical and electronic properties for applications, such as biochemical sensing and imaging. Fluorescent quantum defects can be created on semiconducting SWCNTs covalently at molecular precision, enabling the creation of single photon sources via exciton trapping. In this work, we studied the diazonium (Dz) and oxygen doping of pure-chirality (6,5) SWCNTs to reveal the effect of solvent on the reaction efficiency of SWCNT doping. Particularly, we utilized deionized (DI) water and deuterium oxide (D2O) for the doping reaction of surfactant-coated (6,5) SWCNTs. We demonstrate that D2O leads to an improved reaction efficiency of SWCNTs with dissolved oxygen and diazonium salts. Additional reaction conditions including temperature, surfactant concentration, and the wavelength of UV light irradiation are evaluated to better understand the mechanisms of the diazonium and oxygen doping of pure-chirality SWCNTs. Our findings reveal that the doping reaction of SWCNTs is significantly impacted by the solvent environment of D2O and DI water, which was previously thought to be interchangeable due to their similar structures and properties. This enables further control of carbon nanotube chemistry and optical properties for application development in bioimaging and sensing.

Solvent Impacts the photochemical doping reaction of carbon nanotubes

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.