Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Nanotubes

Controlling conductance

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 514–515 (2005)Cite this article

Most of the outstanding properties of carbon nanotubes rely on them being almost atomically perfect, but the amount of imperfections, and the effect that they have on the tube properties, has, to date, been poorly understood. New work shows that even a very low concentration of missing atom-pairs in the nanotubes has a large effect on their electrical conductance.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: AFM image of a carbon nanotube4, and, below, a schematic of a segment of the nanotube with pairs of missing atoms forming defects (in red).

References

  1. Iijima, S. et al. Nature 354, 56–58 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Dresselhaus, M. S., Dresselhaus, G. & Avouris, P. (eds) Carbon Nanotubes: Synthesis, Structure, Properties and Applications (Springer, Berlin, 2001).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  3. Yu, M.-F. et al. Science 287, 637–640 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Gómez-Navarro, C. et al. Nature Mater. 4, 534–539 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Huhtala, M. et al. Phys. Rev. B 70, 045404 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Kis, A. et al. Nature Mater. 3, 153–157 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Anderson, P. W. Phys. Rev. 109, 1492–1505 (1958).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Accelerator Laboratory, University of Helsinki, PO Box 43, 00014, Finland

    Kai Nordlund

  2. Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, PO Box 2200, 02015, Finland

    Pertti Hakonen

Authors
  1. Kai Nordlund
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pertti Hakonen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nordlund, K., Hakonen, P. Controlling conductance. Nature Mater 4, 514–515 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1424

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1424

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing