We measured the degree of macrodispersion of the various single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using UV-VIS-NIR absorption spectroscopy. CNTs were dispersed with SDS of 2 wt % in
deionized water using the homogenizer and then were further centrifugated at 6000 g for 10 min. The degree of
macrodispersion, expressed by Dm(λ)=Aa(λ)/Ab(λ)*100 (%), where λ is the wavelength and Aa(λ) and Ab(λ) are the
absorbance of the sample after and before centrifugation, respectively. In the case of MWCNTs, we evaluated the degree of
macrodispersion by the average degree of macrodispersion (Dm(λ)) between 1000 and 1200 nm. The degree of
macrodispersion of SWCNTs was evaluated at the wavelength in which van Hove singularity-related transition regions were
excluded, i.e., the range was chosen between E11
S and E22
S peaks. We have estimated six samples with the same method. The
standard deviation of each sample was lower than 5. Therefore, we presented a reliable evaluation method for the
macrodispersion of CNTs for standardization.
Keywords : Carbon nanotube, Dispersion, UV-VIR-NIR spectroscopy, Standardization