Nanodispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes using dichloroethane

In this paper we present a simple approach of nanodispersing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in a non-polar 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) solvent. After filtration with isopropanol and acetone, the purified SWCNTs were immersed in DCE, followed by sonication for about 15 hours. The samples were further centrifuged at 17,000 revolutions per minute for about 3 hours. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) demonstrated that the spin-coated nanotubes were mostly individual nanotubes with an average diameter of 1.6 nm and a length of about 250 nm. We also found that the presence of water, and the dry process during DCE treatment, prevented nanotubes from being nanodispersed.