Patent ID: 8193430

Claim:
A method comprising: dispersing a plurality of (n,m)-nanotubes in media that comprises flavin moieties and/or non-flavin containing molecular species to form a mixture; the flavin moieties being substituted with solubilizing side chains; self-assembling the flavin moieties and other non-flavin containing molecular species in a pattern that is orderly wrapped around the nanotubes to form a composite; introducing an effective amount of a surfactant into the mixture to disturb the wrapping of the flavin moieties and other non-flavin containing molecular species around all other nanotubes but the strongest flavin-bound nanotube; the disturbing resulting in a complete or partial surfactant-replacement of the flavin moieties from the nanotube; introducing a salt to induce aggregation of all flavin-replaced or partially replaced nanotubes; and centrifuging out all nanotube aggregates from the mixture to extract the strongest flavin-bound nanotubes from the plurality of (n,m) nanotubes.