New insight into carbon-nanotube electronic-structure selectivity

Bobby G. Sumpter, De En Jiang, Vincent Meunier

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

The fundamental role of aryl diazonium salts for post-synthesis selectivity of carbon nanotubes is investigated using extensive electronic-structure calculations. The resulting understanding for diazonium-salt-based selective separation of conducting and semiconducting carbon nanotubes shows how the primary contribution comes from the interplay between the intrinsic electronic structure of the carbon nanotubes and that of the anion of the salt. We demonstrate how the electronic-transport properties change upon the formation of charge-transfer complexes and upon their conversion into covalently attached functional groups. The results are found to correlate well with experiments and provide for the first time an atomistic description for diazonium-saltbased chemical separation of carbon nanotubes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2035-2042
Number of pages8
JournalSmall
Volume4
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2008

Keywords

  • Carbon nanotubes
  • Conducting materials
  • Diazonium salts
  • Electronic-structure selectivity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'New insight into carbon-nanotube electronic-structure selectivity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this