High-Fidelity Single-Column Selective Separation of Swcnts

Post-synthesis separation of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been studied with great interest in the past decade. Among the most promising techniques, the selective adsorption of SWCNTs onto hydrogel stationary phases including both agarose and dextran provides opportunity for large-scale separations with relatively high purity. Recently, successful progresses have been achieved for further purification of semiconducting fractions separation into individual chiralities. However, severe limitations exist for large scale production including, minimal throughput, reproducibility, and hydrogel lifetime. Our previous work has highlighted the importance of surfactant structure along SWCNT sidewalls in the separation mechanism.  Using our understanding of the mechanism, we have begun collecting both mono-chiral and near mono-chiral s-SWCNT fractions in a single column using a co-surfactant elution profile at a single temperature. Additionally, we report the effect of common preprocessing steps on the overall separation quality. Finally, it is again demonstrated that effective methods of hydrogel regeneration are a much needed area of further study.