Imaging the response of individual carbon nanotubes to polarized light in aqueous environments
ORAL
Abstract
Individual carbon nanotubes are grown using chemical vapor deposition (methane-ethylene carrier gas and iron nitrate catalyst), freely suspended in an aqueous solution using a surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate), and imaged in an optical microscope using either fluorescent dye (PKH67 and PKH23) or intrinsic near-infrared fluorescence. Freely suspended, individual carbon nanotubes of length 1-8 micrometers show an increasing response to illuminating light as the polarization becomes parallel to tube axis. More intriguingly, some of the carbon nanotubes are found to collapse and fold under 10-30 seconds of illumination, with increasing tube length showing longer time-to-collapse. Unperturbed persistence lengths in these nanotubes are estimated to be 200-300 micrometers.
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Authors
Bryant Walker
NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Todd Brintlinger
University of Maryland College Park
Dept. of Materials Sci. and Eng., Univ. of Maryland, College Park
Dept. of Materials Sci. and Eng., Univ. of Maryland
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
M.S. Fuhrer
Department of Physics and Center for Superconductivity Research, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
Dept. of Physics and Center for Superconductivity Research, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
Department of Physics and Center for Superconductivity Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Center for Superconductivity Research, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-4111
John Cumings
University of Maryland College Park
University of Maryland
Dept. of Materials Sci. and Eng., Univ. of Maryland, College Park
Dept. of Materials Science and Eng., Univ. of Maryland, College Park
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
