Langmuir–Scheaffer Technique as a Method for Controlled Alignment of 1D Materials

A widely applicable method for aligning 1D materials, and in particular carbon nanotubes (CNTs), independent of their preparation would be very useful as the growth methods for these materials are substance-specific. Langmuir–Schaefer (LS) deposition could be such an approach for alignment, as it aligns a large number of 1D materials independently of the desired substrate. However, the mechanism and required conditions for alignment of 1D nanomaterials in a Langmuir trough are still unclear. Here we show, relying on numerical simulations of the Langmuir film compression, that the LS method is a powerful tool to achieve maximal alignment of 1D material in a controllable manner. In particular, 1D materials terminated with a suitable surfactant can align only if the velocity induced by the attraction between individual 1D entities is low enough relative to the flow speed. To validate this model, we achieved an efficient LS alignment of single-walled carbon nanotubes covered with a suitable surfactant relying on the numerical simulations. In situ polarized Raman microspectroscopy during the compression of Langmuir film revealed good quantitative agreement between the numerical simulations and the experiment. This suggests the applicability of the LS technique as a versatile method for the controlled alignment of 1D materials.