The Paper of Prof. Naotoshi Nakashima (Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University / Principal Investigator, Fuel Cell Research Division, I²CNER) and his collaborators was published in “Nature Communications” on October 3, 2014.

■ Summary

Highly pure semiconducting single-walled ​carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are essential for the next generation of electronic devices, such as field-effect transistors and photovoltaic applications; however, contamination by metallic SWNTs reduces the efficiency of their associated devices. Here we report a simple and efficient method for the separation of semiconducting- and metallic SWNTs based on supramolecular complex chemistry. We here describe the synthesis of metal-coordination polymers (CP-Ms) composed of a ​fluorene-bridged bis-phenanthroline ligand and metal ions. On the basis of a difference in the ‘solubility product’ of CP-M-solubilized semiconducting SWNTs and metallic SWNTs, we readily separated semiconducting SWNTs. Furthermore, the CP-M polymers on the SWNTs were simply removed by adding a protic acid and inducing depolymerization to the monomer components. We also describe molecular mechanics calculations to reveal the difference of binding and wrapping mode between CP-M/semiconducting SWNTs and CP-M/metallic SWNTs. This study opens a new stage for the use of such highly pure semiconducting SWNTs in many possible applications.

■ Paper

Title:

Semiconducting Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes Sorting with a Removable Solubilizer Based on Dynamic Supramolecular Coordination Chemistry

Authors: Fumiyuki Toshimitsu & Naotoshi Nakashima

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6041

Publication Date: October 3, 2014