RADIUS DEPENDENCE OF THE ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF ZIGZGAG CARBON NANOTUBES

Abstract

The radius dependence of the electrical conductivity of metallic and semiconducting zigzag carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is theoretically studied. The investigation was done semiclassically by solving the Boltzmann transport equation to derive current density as a function of a homogenous axial dc field and radius of the tube. The analysis was numerically carried out by varying the radius of the materials at a constant temperature. Plots of the normalized current density versus dc field applied along the axis of both materials are presented. We observed that in the case of the metallic zigzag CNTs as the radius increases, the electrical conductivity decreases. On the other hand, in the semiconducting zigzag CNT there was an increase as radius increases. This research shows that thinner metallic zigzag CNTs and thicker semiconducting zigzag CNTs are better conductors of electricity. This investigation therefore offers way of obtaining higher electrical conductivity in both materials without doping. This study therefore shows applications in the development of current conducting nano-devices for scientific systems.