Review of Sorted Metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Since the development of sorting techniques for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), devices where unsorted SWCNTs are applied have been increasingly replaced with electronically enriched SWCNTs to improve device performance. While remarkable success has been achieved in areas where enriched SWCNTs have been applied including conductive coatings, photovoltaics, lithium-ion batteries, thermoelectrics, and electromagnetic interference shields, comprehensive reviews that highlight the impact of electronic monodispersity on device performance as compared with that of the unsorted SWCNTs is lacking. Also, the majority of studies on sorted SWCNTs have focused on semiconducting SWCNTs (s-SWCNTs) owing to their diameter-dependent bandgaps and their characteristic semiconducting nature. In stark contrast, research on metallic SWCNTs (m-SWCNTs) has been largely disregarded despite their enormous potential for application in future electronics owing to their exceptional electrical properties and unique 1D metallic characteristics that are complementary to those of s-SWCNTs. Thus, it is important to provide a comprehensive summary that highlights the role of m-SWCNTs in areas that are applied and discussed in the literature. In this regard, a comprehensive review of research on m-SWCNTs conducted in the past decade after the emergence of the sorting techniques is presented to summarize their purification, alignment, and implementation in different applications.