Improved sorting of carbon nanotubes according to electronic type by density gradient ultracentrifugation

A variety of fabrication methods for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been developed, but none of them has been proven to generate tubes of only one chirality. Hence, a sample of as-produced SWCNTs always consists of a mixture of metallic and semiconducting tubes. By this, the application of SWCNTs in electronics, optics and sensing is limited today. Recently, the sorting of carbon nanotubes using density gradient ultracentrifugation (DGU) has been demonstrated. We report on an improved sorting according to electronic type by applying a two-step procedure: In the first step, we enriched semiconducting SWCNTs via DGU. In the second step, the sorted fractions have been reinserted and a second DGU was performed, winnowing metallic SWCNTs. Employing this procedure, we were able to reduce the content of metallic SWCNTs from 38 to 11%. Furthermore, we assembled carbon nanotube field-effect transistors with a high ON/OFF ratio from the sorted fraction in a single st ep by dielectrophoresis.