Conductivity enhancement in single-walled carbon nanotube bundles doped with K and Br

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), prepared by metal-catalysed laser ablation of graphite, form close-packed bundles or 'ropes'. These rope crystallites exhibit metallic behaviour above 50 K (ref. 2), and individual tubes behave as molecular wires, exhibiting quantum effects at low temperatures. They offer an all-carbon host lattice that, by analogy with graphite and solid C60 (ref. 6), might form intercalation compounds with interesting electronic properties, such as enhanced electrical conductivity and superconductivity. Multi-walled nanotube materials have been doped with alkali metals and FeCl3 (ref. 8). Here we report the doping of bulk samples of SWNTs by vapour-phase reactions with bromine and potassium - a prototypical electron acceptor and donor respectively. Doping decreases the resistivity at 300 K by up to a factor of 30, and enlarges the region where the temperature coefficient of resistance is positive (the signature of metallic behaviour). These results suggest that doped SWNTs represent a new family of synthetic metals.