Individualized single walled carbon nanotubes from bulk material using 96% sulfuric acid as solvent

Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been functionalized in a mixture of 96% sulfuric acid and ammonium persulfate, using sodium nitrite to produce intermediate diazonium salts from substituted anilines. These afford unbundled functionalized SWNTs from bulk bundled SWNTs. This new process eliminates the need for corrosive and more expensive oleum solvent, as described in prior work, and therefore also reduces the formation of sulfonated products.