Unique origin of colors of armchair carbon nanotubes

J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Mar 14;134(10):4461-4. doi: 10.1021/ja209333m. Epub 2012 Jan 3.

Abstract

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 armchair 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.