Exploring the Impact of Counterion Chemistry on Carrier Doping of Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNT) are viewed as a promising candidate for optical, electronic, and energy conversion applications. Often the performance of carbon nanotubes in these applications is dependent on being able to control the interplay between their optical and electronic properties. One strategy toward achieving this control is tuning the position of the Fermi level through chemical doping to inject charge carriers into the electronic density of states.We have previously demonstrated that p-type doping using the one-electron oxidant, triethyloxonium hexachloroantimonate (OA) results in very efficient injection of free carriers into near-monochiral s-SWCNT networks. Here we build on our previous work by employing a series of charge-transfer dopants based on boron clusters appended with various organic moieties that control the redox properties of the dopant. These dopants are unique, since their chemical structure means that the electron that is extracted from the nanotube is localized on the boron cluster and spatially separated from hole density injected into the carbon nanotube. We explore the charge-transfer doping process using these boron-cluster dopants, the resulting charge-carrier transport properties of the doped s-SWCNT networks, and make a comparison to networks doped using either OA or 2,3,5,6-Tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4-TCNQ). We will present spectroscopic and bulk conductivity measurements of charge-transport in high-mobility s-SWCNT networks and will discuss the impact that the chemistry and structure of the dopant counterion has on charge transport and the implications for electronic devices comprised of these tailored s-SWCNT networks.