Nanotube ’Peapods’ Exhibit Surprising Electronic Properties

Image: D. Hornbaker and A. Yazdani

In yet another small step toward building nanoscale devices, scientists have determined that nanotube peapods — minute straws of carbon filled with spherical carbon molecules known as buckyballs — have tunable electronic properties. Published online by the journal Science,the findings suggest that stuffing the straws provides greater control over the electronic states of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT).

Using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope, Ali Yazdani of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and colleagues imaged the physical structure of individual peapods (right). They mapped the motion of electrons within the pipes and, as Yazdani explains, showed “that an ordered array of encapsulated molecules can be used to engineer electron motion inside nanotubes in a predictable way.” Though the harbored buckyballs modify the electronic properties of the nanotube, the atomic structure of the straw remains unchanged.

The researchers also utilized the microscope to move the buckyballs, which allowed them to compare the same section of a SWNT when it was filled and unfilled. “The encapsulated balls have a much stronger effect on the electronic structure of the tube than we had expected,” says study co-author Eugene Mele of the University of Pennsylvania. Indeed, the authors conclude that their calculation not only shows how a peapod’s electronic properties differ from those of its constituent parts, “it also provides possible design rules for proposing hybrid structures having a specific type of electronic functionality.”

Media Contact

Sarah Graham Scientific American

All latest news from the category: Materials Sciences

Materials management deals with the research, development, manufacturing and processing of raw and industrial materials. Key aspects here are biological and medical issues, which play an increasingly important role in this field.

innovations-report offers in-depth articles related to the development and application of materials and the structure and properties of new materials.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors