Chemical defect generation and propagation on carbon nanotubes

Theoretical studies predict that the pattern of functional groups, or defects, will substantially affect the electrical and optical properties of low-dimensional systems such as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and graphene [1, 2]. Experimentally, it has been challenging to spatially control the defect generation and propagation on the graphene lattice. Recent experiments have demonstrated that diazonium chemistry and oxidative reactions occur on a SWNT sidewall at completely random atomic sites [3, 4]. The covalent modification of even a single site results in a substantial drop of electrical conductance[3] and stepwise quenching of exciton fluorescence in semiconducting nanotubes [4].