Individual solubilization of single-walled carbon nanotubes using totally aromatic polyimide

We report here the finding by means of visible-near IR absorption and near-IR fluorescence spectroscopies and atomic force microscopy that a total aromatic polyimide has a high potential to solubilize single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) individually in organic solutions. The solutions contained SWNTs having (7, 6), (7, 5), (8, 4), (9, 5) and (8, 6) indices. With the increasing concentrations of SWNTs, the solutions became viscous and then changed to gels that exhibited characteristic spectral features of individually dissolved SWNTs.