Covalent Atomic Bridges Enable Unidirectional Enhancement of Electronic Transport in Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

29 April 2019, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Interconnecting the surfaces of nanomaterials without compromising their outstanding mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties is critical in the design of advanced bulk structures that still preserve the novel properties of their nanoscale constituents. As such, bridging the p-conjugated carbon surfaces of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) has special implications in next-generation electronics. This study presents a rational path towards improvement of the electrical transport in aligned semiconducting SWNT films by deposition of metal atoms. The formation of conducting Cr-mediated pathways between the parallel SWNTs increases the transverse (intertube) conductance, while having negligible effect on the parallel (intratube) transport. In contrast, doping with Li has a predominant effect on the intratube electrical transport of aligned SWNT films. Large-scale first-principles calculations of electrical transport on aligned SWNTs show good agreement with the experimental electrical measurements and provide insight into the changes that different metal atoms exert on the density of states near the Fermi level of the SWNTs and the formation of transport channels.

Keywords

Carbon nanotube
carbon nanotube applications
Nanomaterials
SWNT arrays
devices
Electronic transport measurements
Electronic transport calculations
Electronic Transport Mechanisms
chromium
Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Aligned Carbon Nanotube
Transition Metals

Supplementary materials

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Supporting Information
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