Mattias Mases

Probing structural stability of double-walled carbon nanotubes at high non-hydrostatic pressure by Raman spectroscopy

Theoretical calculations predict that the collapse pressure for double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) is proportional to 1/R 3, where R is the effective or average radius of a DWCNT. In order to address the problem of CNT stability at high pressure and stress, we performed a resonance Raman study of DWCNTs dispersed in sodium cholate using 532 and 633 nm laser excitation. Raman spectra of the recovered samples show minor versus irreversible changes with increasing I D/I G ratio after exposure to high non-hydrostatic pressure of 23 and 35 GPa, respectively. The system exhibits nearly 70% pressure hysteresis in radial breathing vibrational mode signals recovery on pressure release which is twice that predicted by theory.

Effects of non-hydrostatic pressure on electrical resistance of bundled single-wall carbon nanotubes

Recent studies have shown that single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) exhibit a sequence of phase transitions and demonstrate a high structural stability up to 35 GPa of quasi-hydrostatic pressure [1] beyond which an irreversible structural transformation occurs. Here we report on the study of electrical resistance of SWCNTs at pressures up to 34 GPa in the temperature range of 293 – 395 K. In the pressure range 10–25 GPathe rate of resistance change decreases considerably. We associate such behavior of the resistance with a structural modification of the SWCNTs or/and change of the conductivity character at high pressure. Raman spectra of the samples recovered after 30 GPa exhibit a large increase of defect concentration in the CNTs. Isobaric temperature dependences of the CNT resistance R(T) measured in the temperature range 300–400 K reveal some changes with pressure whereas the semiconducting character of the R(T) remains unaltered.