Tunable filter Raman spectroscopy of purified semiconducting and metallic carbon nanotubes

Tunable filter Raman spectroscopy is used to efficiently produce Raman excitation maps of unpurified and type-purified single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Maps with fine excitation resolution (1 nm) are created over a wide wavelength range (727 to 980 nm), extending from metallic to semiconducting resonances. At a given wavelength, the wide bandwidth (>3,000 cm–1) allows the comparison of the G band with the radial breathing mode (RBM), and shows the 2D band and other less prominent bands. Materials examined included unsorted powders, aqueous sorted semiconductors, aqueous sorted metals, and polyfluorene sorted semiconductors in toluene. The Raman excitation profiles of the G band are broad, relative to the RBM bands. The maps offer evidence of minority species contamination, except in the case of the polyfluorene sorted semiconductors. Tunable Raman spectroscopy data help validate the simpler fixed wavelength Raman spectroscopy approaches to purity assessment. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2016, Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Raman microscopy mapping for the purity assessment of chirality enriched carbon nanotube networks in thin- film transistors

With recent improvements in carbon nanotube separation methods, the accurate determination of residual metallic carbon nanotubes in a purified nanotube sample is important, particularly for those interested in using semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes （SWCNTs） in electronic device applications such as thin-film transistors （TFTs）. This work demonstrates that Raman microscopy mapping is a powerful characterization tool for quantifying residual metallic carbon nanotubes present in highly enriched semiconducting nanotube networks. Raman mapping correlates well with absorption spectroscopy, yet it provides greater differentiation in purity. Electrical data from TFTs with channel lengths of 2.5 and 5μ m demonstrate the utility of the method. By comparing samples with nominal purities of 99.0% and 99.8%, a clear differentiation can be made when evaluating the current on/off ratio as a function of channel length, and thus the Raman mapping method provides a means to guide device fabrication by correlating SWCNT network density and purity with TFT channel scaling.