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20 March 2010
Selection of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes According to Both Their Diameter and Chirality via Nanotweezers
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Zhengxiang Gao1(
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Diameter- and chirality-dependent interactions between aromatic molecule-based nanotweezers and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are revealed by density functional theory calculations. We found that the threshold diameter of selected SWNTs is determined by the end-to-end distance of the nanotweezer. Large-diameter SWNTs are preferred by a nanotweezer with an obtuse folding angle, whereas small-diameter SWNTs are favored by a nanotweezer with an acute folding angle. The adsorption can be further stabilized by the orientational alignment of the hexagonal rings of the nanotweezer and the SWNT sidewall. Therefore, by taking advantage of the supramolecular recognition ability of the aromatic molecule-based nanotweezer, SWNTs can be enriched with both controllable diameter and chirality.
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Selection of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes According to Both Their Diameter and Chirality via Nanotweezers
), Zhengxiang Gao1(
),
Abstract
Diameter- and chirality-dependent interactions between aromatic molecule-based nanotweezers and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are revealed by density functional theory calculations. We found that the threshold diameter of selected SWNTs is determined by the end-to-end distance of the nanotweezer. Large-diameter SWNTs are preferred by a nanotweezer with an obtuse folding angle, whereas small-diameter SWNTs are favored by a nanotweezer with an acute folding angle. The adsorption can be further stabilized by the orientational alignment of the hexagonal rings of the nanotweezer and the SWNT sidewall. Therefore, by taking advantage of the supramolecular recognition ability of the aromatic molecule-based nanotweezer, SWNTs can be enriched with both controllable diameter and chirality.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 10774003, 10474123, 10434010, 90626223, and 20731162012), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Nos. 2002CB613505 and 2007CB936200, MOST of China), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China, National Foundation for Fostering Talents of Basic Science (No. J0630311), and Nebraska Research Initiative of USA (No. 4132050400). We thank R. M. Tromp and A. Afzali for helpful discussions of solvent effects.
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