Fig. 5. Schematic representation of the dilution processes in CHCl3 (left) and DMF (right) without (top) and with (6,5)SWCNTs (bottom). At high concentrations in CHCl3, GC1 ring assemblies are formed quantitatively and establish strong interactions with the CNTs. Upon dilution with CHCl3 the cyclic tetramers gradually dissociate, but such dissociation occurs to a lower extent when CNTs are present, due to the stronger (6,5)SWCNT–cGC14 clamping interactions. On the contrary, upon dilution with DMF, the cGC14 rings are fully dissociated at relatively high concentrations, which eventually produces CNT precipitation due to the weaker interaction of GC1 monomers with the (6,5)SWCNTs. In this last situation, a simple filtration and washing protocol allows to separate efficiently the (6,5)SWCNTs from the GC1 monomer.
