Oxygen and light sensitive field-effect transistors based on ZnO nanoparticles attached to individual double-wall carbon nanotubes

摘要

The attachment of semiconducting nanoparticles to carbon nanotubes is one ofthe most challenging subjects in nanotechnology. Successful high coverageattachment and control over the charge transfer mechanism and photo-currentgeneration opens a wide field of new applications such as highly effectivesolar cells and fibre-enhanced polymers. In this work we study the chargetransfer in individual double-wall carbon nanotubes highly covered with uniformZnO nanoparticles. The synthetic colloidal procedure was chosen to avoidlong-chained ligands at the nanoparticle-nanotube interface. The resultingcomposite material was used as conductive channel in a field effect transistordevice and the electrical photo-response was analysed under various conditions.By means of the transfer characteristics we could elucidate the mechanism ofcharge transfer from non-covalently attached semiconducting nanoparticles tocarbon nanotubes. The role of positive charges remaining on the nanoparticlesis discussed in terms of a gating effect.