Electric charge enhancements in carbon nanotubes: Theory and experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electric charges are enhanced at the ends of single-walled carbon nanotubes through theoretical modeling and experimental electrostatic force microscopy, revealing length-dependent effects and achieving quantitative agreement.

Contribution

It combines atomic charge-dipole modeling with experimental measurements to analyze charge enhancement effects in carbon nanotubes, providing new quantitative insights.

Findings

Charge enhancements are weak at nanotube ends

Enhancement decreases with nanotube length

Enhancement increases with nanotube radius

Abstract

We present a detailed study of the static enhancement effects of electric charges in micron-length single-walled carbon nanotubes, using theoretically an atomic charge-dipole model and experimentally electrostatic force microscopy. We demonstrate that nanotubes exhibit at their ends surprisingly weak charge enhancements which decrease with the nanotube length and increase with the nanotube radius. A quantitative agreement is obtained between theory and experiments.