Permittivity‐dependent Carrier Behavior of Aniline Derivatives Toward Common Low‐permittivity Solvents in the Solubilization of Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

The carrier property of aniline derivatives related to the solubilization of single‐walled carbon nanotubes in different solvents were investigated by Photoluminescence method. Two particular aspects were considered, namely, 1) how the aniline interacts with carbon nanotubes and 2) how the permittivity of the molecular environment affects the aniline–nanotube interaction. The results show that aniline can be used as carrier molecule preferably toward solvents with lower permittivity. However, the presence of alcohol or carbon tetrachloride co‐solvents seems to induce conformational changes on the aniline skeleton. This property could be so pronounced in the case of carbon tetrachloride that it is inhibiting the carrier behavior of the aniline derivatives. Furthermore, a systematic study on the solubilization of carbon nanotubes in several aniline derivatives supports the partial participation of π−π interaction in the process in addition to the reported mechanism based on the formation of charge‐transfer complexes.

Keywords:

• Carbon nanotubes
• Solubility
• Carrier molecule
• Photoluminescence

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank professor Imre Kiricsi and his group (University of Szeged, Hungary) for the synthesis of the SWCNTs. S.K.‐M. wishes to thank the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for a Bolyai János Research Fellowship. The financial support of the European Union – Hungarian National Development Program (Grant GVOP‐3.2.1‐2004‐04‐0200/3.0 and GVOP‐3.2.1‐2004‐04‐0168/3) is highly appreciated.