Understanding Noncovalent Interactions of Small Molecules with Carbon Nanotubes

We combine experimental methods, density functional theory (DFT) calculations, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in the quantitative analysis of noncovalent interactions between (6,5)-enriched single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), as hosts, and a set of pyrene derivatives with different electronic properties and surface areas, as guests. The experiments and calculations were carried out in two solvents with markedly different polarities, namely 1,1',2,2'-tetrachloroethane (TCE) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). Our results show that dispersion forces govern the supramolecular association of small molecules with (6,5)-SWNTs, with negligible contributions from ground-state charge-trans…