A hybrid enrichment process combining conjugated polymer extraction and silica gel adsorption for high purity semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT).

A novel purification process for the enrichment of sc-SWCNTs that combines selective conjugated polymer extraction (CPE) with selective adsorption using silica gel, termed hybrid-CPE (h-CPE), has been developed, providing a high purity sc-SWCNT material with a significant improvement in process efficiency and yield. Using the h-CPE protocol, a greater than 5 fold improvement in yield can be obtained compared to traditional CPE while obtaining sc-SWCNT with a purity >99.9% as assessed by absorption spectroscopy and Raman mapping.

Magnetoconductance oscillations at a nanoparticle film-superconductor interface: a means for probing flux penetration depth.

Interfaces between disordered normal materials and superconductors (S) can exhibit 'reflectionless tunnelling' (RT)-a phenomenon that arises from repeated disorder-driven elastic scattering, multiple Andreev reflections, and electron/hole interference. RT has been used to explain zero-bias conductance peaks (ZBCPs) observed using doped semiconductors and evaporated granular metal films as the disordered normal materials. Recently, in addition to ZBCPs, magnetoconductance oscillations predicted by RT theory have been observed using a novel normal disordered material: self-assembled nanoparticle films.

Conductance oscillations in molecularly linked Au nanoparticle film-superconductor systems.

Charge transport across a disordered normal-superconductor (DN-S) interface was studied using a macroscopic, molecularly linked Au nanoparticle film as the DN component. Low-temperature conductance versus voltage and magnetic field exhibit zero-bias and zero-field peaks, respectively. Importantly, the latter typically exhibit superimposed oscillations.