Purification of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes Using Gelatin

We have developed a simple procedure for the purification of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with gelatin as the dispersing reagent. The steps of this procedure were performed in the following order: annealing in air, sonication in an aqueous solution of gelatin, and soaking in hydrochloric acid solution. The advantage of using gelatin as a dispersing reagent is not only that it is useful for untangling the SWNT bundles, but also that the gelatin molecule and the metallic catalyst can be removed using HCl.