Thin films of metallic carbon nanotubes and their optical spectra

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to produce pure metallic carbon nanotube thin films via dielectrophoresis and measures their optical spectra, showing diameter-independent selectivity.

Contribution

It introduces a bulk separation technique for metallic nanotubes and provides optical absorption spectra for these films, advancing nanotube separation methods.

Findings

Separation method yields pure metallic nanotube films

Optical spectra measured for metallic nanotube films

Selectivity is independent of nanotube diameter

Abstract

We show that separating metallic from semiconducting carbon nanotubes by dielectrophoresis is developing towards a bulk separation method, which allows for the first time to produce thin films of only metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes and to measure their optical absorption spectra. The data proofs that the selectivity of the separation scheme is independent from the nanotube diameter.