Patent ID: 7125502

Claim:
A method of making a fiber of aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes, comprising: (a) mixing single-wall carbon nanotubes with a superacid selected from the group consisting of: (i) a Brønsted superacid selected from the group consisting of perchloric acid, chlorosulfuric acid, fluorosulfuric acid, chlorosulfonic acid, fluorosulfonic acid, perfluoroalkanesulfonic acid, trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, higher perfluoroalkanesulfonic acid, C 2 F 5 SO 3 H, C 4 F 9 SO 3 H, C 5 F 11 SO 3 H, C 6 F 13 SO 3 H, C 8 F 17 SO 3 H, and α, ω-perfluoroalkanedisulfonic acid, (ii) a Lewis superacid selected from the group consisting of antimony pentafluoride, arsenic pentafluoride, tantalum pentafluoride and niobium pentafluoride, and (iii) a Brønsted-Lewis conjugate superacid selected from the group consisting of polyphosphoric acid-oleum mixtures, tetra(hydrogen sulfato)boric acid-sulfuric acid, fluorosulfuric acid-antimony pentafluoride, fluorosulfuric acid-sulfur trioxide, fluorosulfuric acid-arsenic pentafluoride, HSO 3 F:HF:SbF 5 , HSO 3 F:SbF 5 :SO 3 , a perfluoroalkanesulfonic acid-based system, C n F 2n+1 SO 3 H:SbF 5 , where n=1, 2 or 4, CF 3 SO 3 H:B(SO 3 CF 3 ) 3 , hydrogen-flouride-antimony pentafluoride, hydrogen fluoride-tantalum pentafluoride, hydrogen fluoride-boron trifluoride, a cojugate Friedel-Crafts acid, HBr:AlBr 3 , and HCl:AlCl 3 ; to form a single-wall carbon nanotube/acid mixture, and (b) spinning the single-wall carbon nanotube/acid mixture to form a fiber.