Measurement Issues in Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Certain equipment, instruments or materials are identifi ed in this paper in order to adequately specify the experimental details. Such identifi cation does not imply recommendation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology nor does it imply the materials are necessarily the best available for the purpose. iii FORWORD The NIST Recommended Practice Guide on Measurement Issues in Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes represents the output from the 2nd NASA-NIST workshop devoted to issues of nanotube purity, dispersion and measurement techniques held at NIST in 2005. In attendance were over 80 participants, representing private corporations, universities, and government laboratories. The primary purpose of the workshop was to bring together technical and business leaders in the fi eld of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to discuss measurement priorities and aid in the development of measurement protocols. This guide lays out written protocols to enable product developers to more rapidly assess as-received materials, prepare quality nanotube dispersions, and ultimately achieve both repeatability and high performance in their resulting value-added devices. The technical chapters in this guide were written by leading practitioners in the fi eld and present standard methods currently used for characterization of single wall nanotubes in a straightforward fashion.