Covalently Functionalized Double-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Combine High Sensitivity and Selectivity in the Electrical Detection of Small Molecules
Journal
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Journal Volume
135
Journal Issue
6
Pages
2306--2312
Date Issued
2013-02
Author(s)
Jia Huang
Allen L. Ng
Yanmei Piao
Chien-Fu Chen
Alex
er A. Green
Chuan-Fu Sun
Mark C. Hersam
Cheng S. Lee
YuHuang Wang
Abstract
Atom-thick materials such as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and graphene exhibit ultrahigh sensitivity to chemical perturbation partly because all of the constituent atoms are surface atoms. However, low selectivity due to nonspecific binding on the graphitic surface is a challenging issue to many applications including chemical sensing. Here, we demonstrated simultaneous attainment of high sensitivity and selectivity in thin-film field effect transistors (TFTs) based on outer-wall selectively functionalized double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs). With carboxylic acid functionalized DWCNT TFTs, we obtained excellent gate modulation (on/off ratio as high as 4000) with relatively high ON currents at a CNT areal density as low as 35 ng/cm(2). The devices displayed an NH(3) sensitivity of 60 nM (or ~1 ppb), which is comparable to small molecule aqueous solution detection using state-of-the-art SWCNT TFT sensors while concomitantly achieving 6000 times higher chemical selectivity toward a variety of amine-containing analyte molecules over that of other small molecules. These results highlight the potential of using covalently functionalized double-walled carbon nanotubes for simultaneous ultrahigh selective and sensitive detection of chemicals and illustrate some of the structural advantages of this double-wall materials strategy to nanoelectronics.
Type
journal article