Individual solubilization of carbon nanotubes using polyimides

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have a high potential for applications in energy, electronics, IT and materials. However, their insolubility in solvents has hindered chemical approaches using CNTs. Polymer wrapping is a powerful technique to construct CNTs-polymer composite materials. Combination of carbon nanotubes and polyimides is expected to play an important role in the development of novel nanocarbon composite polymers with high performance. We found that the polyimide results in individually dissolved SWNT solutions. Here, we describe the individually dissolution of SWNT and the formation of an organic gel of SWNTs/polyimide. Higher concentrations of SWNTs in polyimide solutions form a gel composed of individually dissolved SWNTs. The visible-near IR spectra of SWNTs/the polyimide showed characteristic features assignable to individually dissolved SWNTs. We also report fluorescence behaviors in the near-IR region, at the meeting.