Ji Yeong Lee

Optical and electrical properties of preferentially anisotropic single-walled carbon-nanotube films in terahertz region

The absorption and dispersion of aligned single-walled carbon-nanotube films were measured from 0.2 to 2.0 THz using a source of freely propagating subpicosecond pulses of THz electromagnetic radiation. The real conductivity increased rapidly with increasing frequency up to 0.45 THz and decreased at a high-frequency range. The Maxwell–Garnett model, where the nanotubes were embedded in a dielectric host, fit the results of this study with the Drude–Lorentz model for nanotube network. We have observed the transverse phonon mode of 2.4 THz propagating along the c direction. This suggested that the carbon nanotube network is composed of metallic and semiconducting nanotubes embedded in an air dielectric host.

A diameter-selective chiral separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes using nitronium lons

We propose a method for a diameter-selective removal of metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (m-SWCNTs) from semiconducting (s-) ones. Our separation technique is capable of 100% separation of semiconducting and metallic nanotubes for small diameter nanotubes. We dispersed SWCNT powder by sonication in a mixed solution of tetramethylene sulfone and chloroform, where nitronium ions were well disolved. Positively charged nitronium ions were intercalated into nanotube bundles, where the intercalation was promoted also by the counter ions. Nitronium ions selectively attacked the sidewall of m-SWCNTs due to the abundant presence of electron density at the Fermi level, thus yielding stronger binding energy compared to the counterpart s-SWCNTs. The s-SWCNTs were left on the filter after filtration, whereas m-SWCNTs were perfectly destroyed by nitronium ions and drained away as amorphous carbons. This preferable adsorption became obscured for nanotubes with diameters greater than 1.1 nm. The effectiveness of removing m-SWCNTs was confirmed by the transmission electron microscope observations, x-ray photoemission spectra, resonant Raman spectra, and absorption spectra.