Rapid and Efficient Organic‐Aqueous Two‐Phase Extraction of High‐Purity Semiconducting Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (sc-SWCNTs) are promising building blocks for next-generation nanoelectronics, yet their widespread application remains limited by the lack of rapid, scalable, and high-yield purification methods. Here, we report a rapid organic-aqueous two-phase extraction (OATPE) strategy for the efficient purification of sc-SWCNTs. By combining conjugated-polymer-assisted pre-sorting with an interfacial extraction step, OATPE effectively removes metallic SWCNTs while preserving the structural integrity of the semiconducting nanotubes. Compared with the conventional multi-cycle purification process, the proposed method reduces the purification time from approximately 3 h to 1 h, increases the estimated purification yield from ∼2.5% to ∼6.1%, and better preserves the nanotube length. The strategy is applicable to SWCNTs from different synthesis routes, including arc-discharge, HiPco, and CoMoCAT materials. Large-scale transistor arrays fabricated from the purified sc-SWCNTs exhibit excellent electrical performance, and statistical analysis of approximately 2000 devices indicates an estimated semiconducting purity exceeding 99.9999%. This work provides a rapid, efficient, and scalable purification strategy for producing high-quality semiconducting SWCNTs for future electronic applications.
Authors
- Rongbin Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0139-1284)
- Yingnan Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8980-0634)
- Wenshan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5555-011X)
- Xiao Lei
- Cheng Li
- Kai Wang
Institutions
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2026-09-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.75843
- Primary Topic
- Carbon Nanotubes in Composites
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University