Catalytic effect of different forms of iron in purification of single-walled carbon nanotubes

In the arc plasma jet (APJ) method, a large amount of soot including single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be produced in a short time. However, as-grown soot contains a lot of impurities, such as metallic particles used as catalyst and amorphous carbon. Hence it is necessary to purify the soot to obtain pure SWNTs. The biggest problem in purifying APJ-SWNTs is how to remove the thick amorphous carbon covering the catalyst metal particles. By refluxing APJ-SWNTs in hydrogen peroxide using iron particle as catalyst, it can be purified. The added fine particle of pure iron is found to be effective. Then, we examine whether SWNTs can be purified more effectively by adding solution containing the Fe ion instead of the iron particle. We used iron (III) nitrate nonahydrate, hydrogen peroxide decomposing agent which contains catalase and ammonium iron (II) sulfate hexahydrate. In the case of iron (III) nitrate and catalase, purification effect is not obvious. Under these conditions hydrogen peroxide was decomposed into H2O and O2, and the hydroxyl radical was not generated. On the other hand, ammonium iron (II) sulfate is effective. Because of existence of Fe2+ in solution Fenton's reaction takes place. Reaction rate is increased at high temperature. Therefore, APJ-SWNT is purified more effectively if refluxed in hydrogen peroxide using ammonium iron (II) sulfate as catalyst.