Utilizing Old Egyptian Wisdom for Stabilization of Individual Carbon Nanotubes in Aqueous Dispersions

The tendency of single wall carbon nanotubes to organize into crystalline ropes and the aggregation of the ropes into tangled networks act as an obstacle for most applications, and diminishes the special properties of the individual tubes. We describe a procedure for dispersing as-produced nanotube powder in aqueous solutions of Gum Arabic. Dispersion results in spontaneous exfoliation of nanotubes ropes into individual tubes, as demonstrated via x-ray scattering and electron microscopy.