Enrichment and immobilization of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes by dopamine functionalized conjugated polymer

Recent advances in the enrichment of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs), particularly via conjugated polymers extraction, allow for their wide applications with unique performances, especially for transistors and sensors. Both the low-cost enrichment and convenient device fabrication of s-SWCNTs have become high-priority and challenging tasks. In this study, we demonstrate that a dopamine functionalized thiophene-fluorene copolymer has the capability of selectively dispersing not only HiPco (0.7–1.2 nm) but also large diameter Arc-Discharge (1.2–1.7 nm) s-SWCNTs with a high efficiency and certain chirality in polar solvent tetrahydrofuran . Moreover, it is convenient to immobilize the obtained conjugated polymer wrapped s-SWCNTs on universal substrates, such as films and particles, based on the dopamine structure feature, which would facilitate the further development of their multifarious applications.