Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Modeling Gas Adsorption on
Carbon Nanotubes
Amanda S. Barnard
CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
amanda.barnard@csiro.au
The remarkable properties of carbon nanotubes have made them the
preferred candidate for a number of exciting new technologies, and
the intense focus of an enormous volume of scientific research. Much
of this work is performed under highly idealized conditions, and less
attention has typically been given to understanding what happens
to carbon nanotubes when they are exposed to more realistic
conditions, such as those typical in everyday devices. One of the most
important aspects of this real world exposure will be the interaction
of carbon nanotubes with the gases in our atmosphere. Adsorption
of air will impact the stability of the carbon nanotubes, and may
have undesirable consequences for the fundamental properties and
the reliability of the device. Since this is a very challenging (and
costly) problem to address using experimental methods, it is often
appropriate to begin by using theory and simulation. Presented
here is a general analytical model for describing the thermodynamic
stability of carbon nanotubes in the presence of gas adsorbates.
This model is used to examine the stability of nanotubes in air, as
