Patent ID: 7514063

Claim:
A method for separating a pristine semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube from a mixture of a pristine metallic single-walled carbon nanotube and a pristine semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube, the method consisting essentially of: (a) obtaining an aqueous mixture of a pristine metallic single-walled carbon nanotube and a pristine semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube, and, optionally, a surfactant; (b) adding a functionalized polymeric, metal, metal oxide or mixed metal oxide particle to the aqueous mixture; whereby the particle is functionalized with a moiety selected from the group consisting of an aryl diazonium salt, an aryl carboxylic acid and aryl amine; (c) reacting the functionalized particle with the pristine metallic single-walled carbon nanotube to obtain a chemically bonded composite comprising the pristine metallic single-walled carbon nanotube and the functionalized water insoluble particle; and (d) separating the chemically bonded composite from the pristine semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube to obtain a purified pristine semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube.