Synthesis of nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes and monitoring of doping by Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNx-SWNTs) with tunable dopant concentrations were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and their structure and elemental composition were characterized by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in combination with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). By comparing the Raman spectra of pristine and doped nanotubes, we observed the doping-induced Raman G band phonon stiffening and 2D band phonon softening, both of which reflect doping-induced renormalization of the electron and phonon energies in the nanotubes and behave as expected in accord with the n-type doping effect. On the basis of first principles calculations of the distribution of delocalized carrier density in both the pristine and doped nanotubes, we show how the n-type doping occurs when nitrogen heteroatoms are substitutionally incorporated into the honeycomb tube-shell carbon lattice.