Preparation of semiconducting carbon nanotubes with high purity and yield by two-component polymer sorting and its application in photodetectors. Poly[N-(1-octylnonyl)-9H-carbazol-2,7-diyl] (PCz) was used to disperse and selectively wrap large-diameter s-SWCNTs, with poly(9,9-n-dihexyl-2,7-fluorenyl-alternative-9-phenyl-3,6-carbazole) (PDFP) added as an enhancing molecule. Although PDFP itself is not selective for s-SWCNTs, the combined effect of PCz and PDFP increased sorting efficiency by 4-fold. Field-effect transistors and photodetectors made from the sorted s-SWCNTs exhibited excellent semiconductor properties and broad-spectrum detection, with good long-term stability.

Abstract

The advancement of carbon-based electronics is reliant on the development of semiconducting carbon nanotubes with high purity and yield. We developed a new extraction strategy to efficiently sort SWCNTs with superior yields and purity. The approach uses two polymers, poly[N-(1-octylnonyl)-9H-carbazol-2,7-diyl](PCz) and poly(9,9-n-dihexyl-2,7-fluorene-alt-9-phenyl-3,6-carbazole)(PDFP), and two sonication processes to eliminate surface polymer contamination. PCz selectively wraps large-diameter s-SWCNTs, with PDFP added as an enhancing molecule to increase sorting efficiency at 4-fold compared to the efficiency of only PCz alone sorting. The purity of the sorted s-SWCNTs was confirmed to be above 99 % using absorption and Raman spectra. Field-effect transistors and photodetectors made from the sorted s-SWCNTs exhibited excellent semiconductor properties and broad-spectrum detection, with good long-term stability. Furthermore, a photodetector using large-tube diameter s-SWCNTs achieved broad-spectrum detection, which the photoresponsivity is 0.35 mA/W and the detectivity is 4.7×10⁶ Jones. The s-SWCNTs/graphene heterojunction photodetector achieved a photoresponsivity of 3 mA/W and a detectivity of 6.3×10⁶ Jones. This new strategy provides a promising approach to obtain high-purity and high-yield s-SWCNTs for carbon-based photodetectors.