In various embodiments, a method for separating semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes from metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes may be provided. The method may include the steps of (a) passing a carbon nanotube dispersion over a charged material. The dispersion may include a mixture of the semiconducting carbon nanotubes and the metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes. The method may further include (b) passing an eluent solution through the charged material after (a). The method may also include (c) collecting an eluate including semiconducting carbon nanotubes or a mixture of semiconducting carbon nanotubes and metallic carbon nanotubes.

To reduce cost for the method for separating semiconducting carbon nanotube from a mixture of metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes. The separation method includes preparing a dispersion by mixing a first substance, a second substance, SDS, SC, and a mixture of metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes with a solvent, wherein the dispersion into two layers, which are a first layer mainly containing the first substance and a second layer mainly containing the second substance, whereby the semiconducting carbon nanotube is transferred into the first layer, and the metallic carbon nanotube is transferred into the second layer, wherein the first substance is an ?-glucan which is composed of glucose linked via ?-glucosidic linkage and which has a weight average molecular weight Mw of 4,000 to 7,000 and has a ratio in amount of ?-1, 6 linked glucose residues to the entire glucose residues of 40 to 70%.

Provided herein are graphene materials, fabrication processes, and devices with improved performance and a high throughput. In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides graphene oxide (GO) materials and methods for forming GO materials. Such methods for forming GO materials avoid the shortcomings of current forming methods, to facilitate facile, high-throughput production of GO materials.

Disclosed are methods for separating carbon nanotubes on the basis of a specified parameter, such as length. The methods include labelling of the carbon nanotubes with a biological moiety, followed by SDS-PAGE and staining, to separate the carbon nanotubes on the basis of length and/or characterize their length. In some embodiments, egg-white lysozyme, conjugated covalently onto single-walled carbon nanotubes surfaces using carbodiimide method, followed by SDS-PAGE and visualization of the single-walled nanotubes using silver staining, provides high resolution characterization of length of the single-walled carbon nanotubes. This high precision, inexpensive, rapid and simple separation method obviates the need for centrifugation, additional chemical analyses, and expensive spectroscopic techniques such as Raman spectroscopy to visualize carbon nanotube bands. The disclosed methods find utility in quality-control in the manufacture of carbon nanotubes of specific lengths.

The separation of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), by electronic type using centrifugation of compositions of SWNTs and surface active block copolymers in density gradient media.

An apparatus according to the present invention comprises a chamber into which carbon nanotubes dispersed in a non-polar solvent may be received. The nanotubes are impelled along the chamber by the application of an external electrical field and will pass through a charging element that imposes an electrical charge on the nanotubes, and a template (180), such that the nanotubes are deposited on a substrate located next to the template. The substrate may be moved relative to the template such that the nanotubes are deposited on the substrate in a predetermined selective manner.

A nanosensor for detecting molecule characteristics includes a membrane having an opening configured to permit a charged carbon nanotube to pass but to block a molecule attached to the carbon nanotube. The opening is filled with an electrolytic solution. An electric field generator is configured to generate an electric field relative to the opening to drive the charged carbon nanotubes through the opening. A sensor circuit is coupled to the electric field generator to sense current changes due to charged carbon nanotubes passing into the opening, and to bias the electric field generator to determine a critical voltage related to a force of separation between the carbon nanotube and the molecule.

The present disclosure relates to a method for the preparation of graphene from coal as a raw material, and more particularly to a method for the preparation of microporous graphene from Chinese Zhundong coal. The process consists of the following steps: first, refining the coal block or coal particle to get fine powdered coal; second, immersing the powdered coal with activation agent solution and drying water to get molten mixture; third, carbonizing the molten mixture in an inert atmosphere and at a high temperature to obtain the carbonized product; fourth, successively acid washing, water-washing and drying the carbonized product to obtain the coal-based porous graphene with the surface area up to 3345 m.sup.2/g. The invention mainly solves the problems of the current method for the preparation of the microporous graphene with high specific surface area, including high cost of raw materials, complicated procedures and low yield. The porous graphene obtained by the invention is expected to realize excellent application values in the fields of gas adsorption separation, electrochemical energy storage and catalysis.

Producing a semiconductor device having a semiconductor layer containing semiconducting carbon nanotube produced through a method including: mixing a first substance, a second substance which undergoes two-phase separation when mixed with the first substance in solution, an alkyl chain-containing surfactant, a steroidal surfactant, and a mixture of metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes with a solvent, to prepare a dispersion; and separating the dispersion into a first layer mainly containing the first substance and a second layer mainly containing the second substance, whereby the semiconducting carbon nanotube is transferred into one of the first and second layers, and the metallic carbon nanotube is transferred into the other layer; and the first substance is an -glucan composed of glucose linked via -glucosidic linkage and having a weight average molecular weight of 4,000 to 7,000 and a ratio of -1, 6 linked glucose residues to the entire glucose residues of 40 to 70%.

Disclosed is a method of purifying carbon nanotubes, including treating carbon nanotubes with an inert gas at a high temperature in a low vacuum in a reactor and obtaining ultrapure carbon nanotubes, wherein the ultrapure carbon nanotubes contain 50 ppm or less of each metal remaining therein.