Assembly of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes Dimers by a DNA Hybridization-based Strategy and Their Metrology

The capability to specifically assembly or controllably place an individual single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNTs) of known (n,m) structure and length is highly desirable for enabling high-value applications including high performance digital logic, sensor arrays, or single photon emitters. Ideally, individual nanotubes should be directable to form controlled structures, or to only assemble in specific locations. Of great promise for achieving such goals is the strategy of assembly using hybridization of single-stranded DNA with a complementary DNA sequence to direct selective assembly of objects to which those DNA strands are attached. Prior efforts have shown that this strategy enables directed placement of SWCNTs at high density and alignment, and in a fashion transferable for the production of active devices. Although these efforts have demonstrated the promise of the method, optimization and improved control are necessary for further implementation. In this talk I will describe efforts to develop the assembly of SWCNT dimers in liquid dispersion via a DNA hybridization scheme as a platform for determining optimized strategies and control of the assembly process. Critically, the measurement of successful dispersion, DNA sequence coating, interaction with complementary DNA sequences and selective assembly with other DNA-SWCNTs is a significant measurement barrier to such efforts. I will describe the use of analytical ultracentrifugation to address this metrology gap and present successful and directed assembly of dimers as a demonstration of the measurement platform.