Molecular-Crowding-Induced Clustering of DNA-Wrapped Carbon Nanotubes for Facile Length Fractionation

Emerging applications require single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) of well-defined length. Yet the use of length-defined SWCNTs is limited, in part due to the lack of an easily accessible materials preparation method. Here, we present a new strategy for SWCNT length fractionation based on molecular...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS nano 2011-10, Vol.5 (10), p.8258-8266
Main Authors: Khripin, Constantine Y, Arnold-Medabalimi, Nicholas, Zheng, Ming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption
Atomic force microscopy
Chemical Precipitation
Chromatography, Gel
Clusters
Crowding
Dispersions
DNA - chemistry
DNA, Fungal - chemistry
Energy Transfer
Fractionation
Molecular Weight
Nanostructure
Nanotubes, Carbon - chemistry
Oligodeoxyribonucleotides - chemistry
Optical Phenomena
Polyethylene glycol
Polyethylene Glycols - chemistry
Reagents
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Single wall carbon nanotubes
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Summary:Emerging applications require single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) of well-defined length. Yet the use of length-defined SWCNTs is limited, in part due to the lack of an easily accessible materials preparation method. Here, we present a new strategy for SWCNT length fractionation based on molecular crowding induced cluster formation. We show that the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a crowding agent into DNA-wrapped SWCNT dispersion leads to the formation of reversible, nematic, and rodlike microclusters, which can be collected by gentle centrifugation. Since shorter SWCNTs form clusters at higher polyethylene glycol concentration, gradual increase in PEG concentration results in length fractionated SWCNTs. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) we show that fractions with average lengths of 60–500 nm and standard deviations of 30–40% can be obtained. The concept of molecular-crowding-based fractionation should be applicable to other nanoparticle dispersions.
ISSN:1936-0851
1936-086X
DOI:10.1021/nn2029549