Dissolution of single-walled carbon nanotubes in alkanol-cholic acid mixtures

A procedure for dispersing the single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) for preparing stable suspensions with high concentrations of individual nanotubes in various alcohols was described. The obtained suspensions were studied by Raman spectroscopy. The solubility of the single-walled carbon nanotubes in alcohols was found to depend on the concentration of cholic acid. The ethanol-surfactant mixture was shown to be the best solvent for all alkanol-cholic acid mixtures (0.018 mol/kg) under study used for preparing time-stable suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The dissolving ability of aliphatic alcohols was found to decrease in the series: ethanol-isopropanol- tert-butanol-butanol-propanol.