Abstract
This work is to present a simple visualization technique for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) observation in fluorescent optical microscope. A noncovalent coupling approach is proposed to conjugate fluorescent ZnS-capped CdSe quantum dots (QDs) to unmodified single-walled/multi-walled CNTs (SWCNTs/MWCNTs) via a bifunctional molecule, 1-(1-pyrenyl)-1-methanethiol, which contains mercapto and pyrenyl group. The pyrenyl group can interact strongly with the sidewall of CNT via noncovalent π-stacking, and the mercapto group was bound to the Zn atoms of ZnS-capped CdSe QDs, forming QDs-CNT complex. The fluorescent QDs-CNT complex makes it possible to observe CNTs directly by using fluorescent optical microscope. The success of QDs self-assembly to CNT’s sidewall were further verified by transmission electron microscope (TEM)