Combined Strategy for the Dispersion/Dissolution of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes and Cellulose in Water Mukund G. Adsul † Diego A. Rey ‡ , Digambar V. Gokhale* † † NCIM Resource Center, National Chemical Laboratory, Dr.Homi Bhaba Road, Pune-411008, India and ‡ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Supporting Information: Materials: Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) obtained from Sigma which was produced by arc method (purity-50-70%, Tubes occur in bundles of length ~20 μm, 1.2- 1.5 nm × 2-5 μm , bundle dimensions). Avicel-PH101 purchased from Fluka and cellulose (Sigmacell type-50) from Sigma. The bagasse cellulose were prepared by treating sugarcane bagasse first with alkali (20%) and then with sodium chlorite (4%). Methods: The SWNTs were used without any modification. 1 mg SWNTs and 5 to 10mg of cellulose (sigmacell, avicel, bagasse cellulose and cotton) were added in 15ml tube containing 5 ml of deionised water of pH around between 6.0 and 10 by adding very little amount of NaOH. The above mixture were sonicated (Sonics, Vibra-cell) at 80% amplitude (output-around 8-10 watts, 145 µm) using 3 mm probe for 5 to 10 min. Then the undissolved cellulose or nondispersed nanotubes were separated by centrifugation at 10,000 rpm for 10 min. Dispersion of nanotubes were also checked for all range of pH of water Characterization: Raman and FTIR spectroscopy: The dispersed nanotubes were separated by using 0.2μ filter and dried in the form of film or powder. The Raman spectra of this dried sample or liquid SWNT dispersed sample and cellulose (sigmacell) were recorded using Horiba JY LabRaman HR 800 Micro Raman Spectrometer. The excitation wavelength used was 632nm. For FTIR spectra the above dried sample were mixed with KBr. The pallets were prepared and spectra are recorded using A Perkin Elmer Spectrum 1 FTIR. The spectra’s of sigma cellulose and sigma SWNTs were used as control. Supplementary Material (ESI) for Journal of Materials Chemistry This journal is (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011