Issue 20, 2022

Polyoxometalate steric hindrance driven chirality-selective separation of subnanometer carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Subnanometer single-chirality single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are of particular interest in multiple applications. Inspired by the interdisciplinary combination of redox active polyoxometalates and SWCNTs, here we report a cluster steric hindrance strategy by assembling polyoxometalates on the outer surface of subnanometer SWCNTs via electron transfer and demonstrate the selective separation of monochiral (6,5) SWCNTs with a diameter of 0.75 nm by a commercially available conjugated polymer. The combined use of DFT calculations, TEM, and XPS unveils the mechanism that selective separation is associated with tube diameter-dependent interactions between the tube and clusters. Sonication drives the preferential detachment of polyoxometalate clusters from small-diameter (6,5) SWCNTs, attributable to weak tube–cluster interactions, which enables the polymer wrapping and separation of the released SWCNTs, while strong binding clusters with large-diameter SWCNTs provide steric hindrance and block the polymer wrapping. The polyoxometalate-assisted modulation, which can be rationally customized, provides a universal and robust pathway for the separation of SWCNTs.

Graphical abstract: Polyoxometalate steric hindrance driven chirality-selective separation of subnanometer carbon nanotubes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
24 Feb 2022
Accepted
22 Apr 2022
First published
25 Apr 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 5920-5928

Polyoxometalate steric hindrance driven chirality-selective separation of subnanometer carbon nanotubes

X. Yang, C. Zhu, L. Zeng, W. Xue, L. Zhang, L. Zhang, K. Zhao, M. Lyu, L. Wang, Y. Zhang, X. Wang, Y. Li and F. Yang, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 5920 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC01160C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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