TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Composition: The composition further comprises a solvent. Preferred Components: The functionalized non-native polycyclic aromatic comprises: a sulfonic acid (-SO3H) functional group on a non-native polycyclic aromatic compound; or functionalized perylene; or perylene functionalized with the sulfonic acid functional group. The solvent present is the composition is water, ethanol, propylene carbonate (all preferred), dimethylformamide and/or pyrrolidinone derivatives. The analogue of N-cyclohexyl-2-pyrrolidone comprises dimethyl-tetrahydro-2-pyrimidinone, N-butyl-pyrrolidinone, benzyl-pyrrolidinone, N-methyl-pyrrolidinone, 3-(2-oxo-1-pyrrolidinyl)propanenitrile, N-ethyl-pyrrolidinone, N-octyl-pyrrolidinone, N-vinyl-pyrrolidinone, dimethyl-imidazolidinone, dimethylacetamide and/or N-dodecyl-pyrrolidone. Preferred Method: In the method: the exposing steps are the carbon nanotubes to the solvent, acid, and to the non-native polycyclic aromatic compound are performed in a single step, where the single step comprises mixing the solvent, the acid, the non-native polycyclic aromatic compound and the carbon nanotubes to form a carbon nanotube-solvent-acid-polycyclic aromatic compound solution, and the method further comprises heating carbon nanotube-solvent-acid-polycyclic aromatic compound solution, where heating is carried out at 50-200 degrees C, and filtering the carbon nanontubes from carbon nanotube-solvent-acid-polycyclic aromatic compound solution; or the steps of exposing the carbon nanotubes to the solvent, to the acid and to the non-native polycyclic aromatic compound comprises first mixing the solvent with the non-native polycyclic aromatic compound to form a polycyclic aromatic compound-solvent solution, then mixing the polycyclic aromatic compound-solvent solution with the acid to form a polycyclic aromatic compound-solvent-acid solution, and then adding the carbon nanotubes to the polycyclic aromatic compound-solvent-acid solution to form a polycyclic aromatic compound-solvent-acid solution-carbon nanotube solution, and the method further comprises heating the acid prior to mixing the polycyclic aromatic compound-solvent solution with the acid, where the acid is heated at 50-200 degrees C, and filtering the carbon nanotubes from the polycyclic aromatic compound-solvent-acid-carbon nanotube solution. EXAMPLE - 100 ml Concentrated sulfuric acid was heated to 85 degrees C in one container. In another container, 50 mg of perylene was dissolved in 50 ml of cyclohexyl-2-pyrrolidone (CHP) to form a solution. The perylene-CHP solution was then dropwise added to the heated sulfuric acid and maintained at 85 degrees C overnight to ensure good yield of sulfonated perylene and then, the mixture was cooled to ambient temperature to provide a sulfonated perylene solution. 40 mg Single walled nanotubes having a length of 3-30 mu , an outer diameter of 1-4 nm and a purity of greater than 99% were added to the sulfonated perylene solution, and the sulfonated perylene was allowed to absorb onto the carbon nanotubes. The mixture was then filtered and dried to obtain the solid sulfonated perylene/carbon nanotube composite.