Electron paramagnetic resonance investigation of purified catalyst-free single-walled carbon nanotubes

Electron paramagnetic resonance of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been bedevilled by the presence of paramagnetic impurities. To address this, SWCNTs produced by laser ablation with a nonmagnetic PtRhRe catalyst were purified through a multiple step centrifugation process in order to remove amorphous carbon and catalyst impurities. Centrifugation of a SWCNT solution resulted in sedimentation of carbon nanotube bundles containing clusters of catalyst particles, while isolated nanotubes with reduced catalyst particle content remained in the supernatant. Further ultracentrifugation resulted in highly purified SWCNT samples with a narrow diameter distribution and almost no detectable catalyst particles. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signals were detected only for samples which contained catalyst particles, with the ultracentrifuged SWCNTs showing no EPR signal at X-band (9.4 GHz) and fields < 0.4 T.