Single-walled carbon nanotubes have outstanding electronic and optical properties including ballistic transport and tunable infrared light emission. These properties arise from the delocalized π electrons of the sp² carbon structure and confinement effects around the nanotube circumference. There has been a long-standing need to controllably tailor single-walled nanotubes through the covalent attachment of functional groups. We recently introduced a novel way of nanotube functionalization using triazine anchors that preserves the p electrons of single-walled carbon nanotubes.[1] Infrared light emission from the optically active E₁₁ exciton was observed even at high degree of functionalization (4% of the carbon atoms). In this talk I will discuss functional hybrids that are built using the triazine groups to anchor functional units on single-walled carbon nanotubes. I will show how our platform provides routes toward controlled doping in carbon nanotubes and manipulating nanotube luminescence intensities via molecular switches and gold nanostructures. The presented hybrids have interesting application in ultra-high resolution bioimaging that will be discussed.

[1] Preserving π-conjugation in covalently functionalized carbon nanotubes for optoelectronic applications, A. Setaro, M. Adeli, M. Gläske, D. Przyrembel, T. Bisswanger, G. Gordeev, F. Maschietto, A. Faghani, B. Paulus, M. Weinelt, R. Arenal, R. Haag, and S. Reich, Nat. Comm. 8, 14281 (2017).