Coulomb explosion: a novel approach to separate single-walled carbon nanotubes from their bundle

A novel approach based on Coulomb explosion has been developed to separate single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from their bundle. With this technique, we can readily separate a bundle of SWNTs into smaller bundles with uniform diameter as well as some individual SWNTs. The separated SWNTs have a typical length of several microns and form a nanotree at one end of the original bundle. More importantly, this separating procedure involves no surfactant and includes only one-step physical process. The separation method offers great conveniences for the subsequent individual SWNT or multiterminal SWNTs device fabrication and their physical properties studies.