Chemically Conjugated Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene for Carrier Modulation

Abstract

Nanocarbons such as fullerene and carbon nanotubes (CNT) in late 20th century have blossomed nanoscience and nanotechnology in 21st century, which have been further proliferated by the new finding of graphene and have indeed opened a new carbon era. Several new branches of research, for example, zero-dimensional nanoparticles, one-dimensional nanowires, and two-dimensional insulating hexagonal boron nitride, and semiconducting and metallic transition metal dichalcogenides including the recently emerging black phosphorus, have been explored and numerous unprecedented quantum mechanical features have been revealed, that have been hardly accessible otherwise. Extensive research has been done on devices and applications related to such materials. Many experimental instruments have been developed with high sensitivity and improved spatial and temporal resolution to detect such tiny objects. The need for multidisciplinary research has been growing stronger than ever, which will be the tradition in the next few decades. In this Account, we will demonstrate an example of multidisciplinary effort of utilizing CNTs and graphene for electronics by modulating electronic structures. While there are several methods of modifying electronic structures of nanocarbons such as gate bias, contact metal, and conventional substitutional doping, we focus on chemical doping approaches here. We first introduce the concept of chemical doping on CNTs and graphene in terms of electronegativity of molecules and electrochemical potential of CNTs and graphene. To understand the relationship of electrochemical potential of CNTs and graphene to electronegativity of molecules, we propose a simple water bucket model: how to fill or drain water (electrons in CNTs or graphene) in the bucket (density of states) by the chemical dopants. The doping concept is then demonstrated experimentally by tracking the absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, transmittance, and transport measurements and by relating them to the reduction potential of molecules relative to that of CNTs or graphene. Two effects of chemical doping in electronics, transparent conducting films, and field effect transistors are extensively discussed. One critical issue, the stability of chemical dopants under ambient conditions, is further discussed. We believe that the presented doping concept will be useful tools for other low dimensional materials such as recently emerging transition metal dichalcogenides and black phosphorus.