Licensable Technologies : Materials : Ceramics

Carbon Nanotube Separations by Electronic Type and Chirality

Abstract
This invention describes a rapid, high-throughput, highly selective method for separating single-walled carbon nanotubes by electronic type and chirality.  While other techniques are limited to batch processes of microgram to gram quantities, this invention could potentially be scaled to kilogram or larger quantities.  It could also be performed in either a batch process or continuous flow process.  Existing separation technologies take a half-hour or longer to use, while this invention can separate within minutes.  Other separations can only separated metallic from semiconducting nanotubes, but this invention can also distinguish between the many chiralities, separating chiralities with such high resolution that single chiralities can be isolated.  This method is also tunable to selected the range of chiralities that are needed.  This invention is cheaper in that it uses off-the-shelf reagents that are much cheaper than the reagents needed for existing DNA separations.

Advantages

• Higher Throughput
  • Scalable to kilogram quantities or continuous flow processes
• Faster
  • Minutes instead of hours
• Better Chirality Resolution
  • Only effective method to isolate single chiralities - Not just Metallic vs. Semiconducting
• Better Selectivity and Tunability
  • Any range of chiralities can be separated
• Cheaper
  • Easily accessible reagents are much cheaper than reagents needed for DNA separations

IP Status: Available both Exclusively and Non Exclusively

Reference Number: 590

S Number: DOE reference no.(s): 104,841

Patents & Applications:
Application(s) Pending

Posted: 09-07-2006

Contact
John Mott
Technology Transfer Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory
P.O. Box 1663, MailStop C334
(505) 665-0883
jmott@lanl.gov