Patent ID: 7074310

Claim:
A method for separating a mixture of (n, m) single-wall carbon nanotubes into fractions based on the (n, m) types comprising: a) suspending a mixture of (n, m) single-wall carbon nanotubes in a liquid to form a suspension of individually-suspended nanotubes; b) adjusting the pH of the suspended nanotube mixture to cause protonation of a first fraction of x fractions of nanotubes, wherein x is an arbitrary whole number of at least 1; c) separating the suspended nanotube mixture by applying an electric field to the suspended nanotubes wherein the (n, m) single-wall carbon nanotube types migrate at different rates within the electric field, and wherein the different migration rates cause the protonated (n, m) single-wall carbon nanotubes to be separated by type; d) collecting by type the separated (n, m) single-wall carbon nanotubes.