Comparative study of photoluminescence of single-walled carbon nanotubes wrapped with sodium dodecyl sulfate, surfactin and polyvinylpyrrolidone

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been dispersed with three types of amphiphilic materials in aqueous solutions: (i) an anionic aliphatic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), (ii) a cyclic lipopeptide biosurfactant, surfactin, and (iii) a water-soluble polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). Solution photoluminescence (PL) studies suggest that SDS wrapping is very sensitive to the temperature whereas the other two give relatively robust wrapping around the SWCNTs. Low temperature PL spectra from both surfactin and PVP dispersed SWCNTs show that peak shifts are strongly dependent on their chiralities, which can be explained by the bandgap modulations with the environmental strain. The uniaxial and torsional strains deduced from their bandgap shifts were similar, indicating the strains are mainly due to the different rates of thermal expansion in SWCNTs and ice.