Mechanistic Studies of Carbon Naotube Sorting on Functional Surfaces

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The objective of this research is to understand the fundamental mechanisms for the surface self-sorting of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The approach is to combine systematic experiments and ab-initio theoretical modeling to understand the nature of interactions between organic functional groups and single-walled carbon nanotubes. The combination of superior electrical and mechanical properties in single-walled carbon nanotubes continues to advance applications including flexible electronics, bio/chemical sensors, and solar cell technology. Despite enormous progress achieved exhibiting potential applied uses of SWNT devices, such applications will not be realized unless fundamental issues concerning the controlled reproducible placement, alignment, and chirality/diameter separation can be solved. This work builds on the previous experimental findings of Bao that properly functionalized surfaces can selectively absorb either primarily semiconducting or primarily metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes. This work will lead to better understanding of the nature of interaction between SWNTs and surface functional groups. The results from this work will have great impact in bringing single-walled carbon nanotubes closer to practical electronic devices. With the combination of both experimental and theoretical approaches, the students involved in the project will have exposure to an interdisciplinary approach for problem solving, applicable to a wide class of problems, beyond those tackled in this proposal. This research will expose both graduate students and undergraduates to organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, surface chemistry, quantum simulations, materials and thin film characterization, device fabrication, and device characterization. Both PIs are greatly committed and have been actively involved in outreach and education, which will be continued in this program.