A purification method to remove the metal catalysts and impurity carbon materials from arc discharge grown single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been developed. Microporous membrane and the oxidation in the air for the crude SWCNTs were used to eliminate the coexisting metal catalysts nanoparticles,carbon nanoparticles and amorphous carbon. Then we used the high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) to characterize the crude SWCNTs prepared by arc discharge method and the purified SWCNTs. The Raman spectra and the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were also utilized to analyze the approach of our purification for SWCNTs. With this method the SWCNTs with the purity more than 95%could be obtained.
