The colors of suspended metallic colloidal particles are determined by their size-dependent plasma resonance, while those of semiconducting colloidal particles are determined by their size-dependent band gap. Here, we present a novel case for armchai
r carbon nanotubes, suspended in aqueous medium, for which the color depends on their size-dependent excitonic resonance, even though the individual particles are metallic. We observe distinct colors of a series of armchair-enriched nanotube suspensions, highlighting the unique coloration mechanism of these one-dimensional metals.
We have used resonant Raman scattering spectroscopy to fully analyze the relative abundances of different (n,m) species in single-walled carbon nanotube samples that are metallically enriched by density gradient ultracentrifugation. Strikingly, the d
ata clearly show that our density gradient ultracentrifugation process enriches the metallic fractions in armchair and near-armchair species. We observe that armchair carbon nanotubes constitute more than 50% of each (2n + m) family.
