Effect of gas adsorption on the electrical properties of single walled carbon nanotubes mats

Abstract

Single wall nanotubes have been made by arc-discharge method. Residual impurities (fullerenes, amorphous carbon, catalyst metals...) have been removed by tangential filtration process followed by high temperature annealing under vacuum (1200°C). In this work we present results on the influence of the surrounding gas nature (N2, H2, CO2, H2O...) on the electrical resistivity of carefully outgassed mat of such samples. In particular, we have observed that the sample resistance exhibits a strong dependence on water contamination during the transfer to the measurement reactor.