A process of producing a yarn, ribbon or sheet that includes nanofibers in which the process includes forming a yarn, ribbon or sheet comprising nanofibers, and applying an enhancing agent comprising a polymer to the yarn, ribbon or sheet.

Fabricating a nanofiber ribbon or sheet with a process that includes providing a primary assembly by arranging carbon nanotube nanofibers in aligned arrays, the arrays having a degree of inter-fiber connectivity, drawing the carbon nanotube nanofibers from the primary assembly into a sheet or ribbon, and depositing the sheet or ribbon on a substrate.

A method for synthesis of nanocomposites using polymerized carbon nanotubes and phenolic compounds, such as 2,4-dichlorophenol, 4-nitrophenol, 2-nitrophenol, 4-chlorophenol, 2,4,6-trinitrophenol and phenol, in aqueous media, as well as the application of one of such nanocomposites, namely MWCNT-g-PCA-Phenol, as a DNA extraction agent. The aforementioned nanocomposites enable the isolation of genomic DNA of plant samples. Pursuant to the present invention, the toxicity of free phenols used in DNA extraction is decreased since very low concentrations of phenol are required in the method, as compared to conventional techniques which employ saturated phenol solutions. This remarkable advantage is due to the encapsulation of the phenol nanoparticles into the polymerized carbon nanotubes.

A structure and method for forming single-stranded DNA segments/single-wall carbon nanotube complexes and a method of preparing single-stranded DNA segments. The method for forming single-stranded DNA segments/single-wall carbon nanotube complexes including: attaching single-stranded DNA segments to single-wall carbon nanotubes to form single-stranded DNA segment/single-wall carbon nanotube complexes, each of the single-stranded DNA segments having a same length of greater than 2,000 bases.

A process of producing a yarn, ribbon or sheet comprising nanofibers that includes infiltrating a liquid into the yarn, ribbon or sheet and evaporating the liquid from the yarn, ribbon, or sheet to strengthen the yarn, ribbon or sheet. The yarn, ribbon, or sheet can be formed by solid-state draw from a carbon nanotube forest.