Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
Nanotechnology. 2012 Mar 2;23(8):085203. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/23/8/085203. Epub 2012 Feb 1.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are well known as materials for nanoelectronics and show great potential to be used as the sensing elements in chemical and biological sensors. Recently, CNTs have been shown to be effective nanofluidic channels and the transport of substances through small diameter CNTs is intrinsically fast, selective, and operates at the single molecule level. It has been shown that the transport characteristics of semiconducting single-walled CNT (SWCNT) field effect transistors (FETs) are sensitive to internal water wetting. We report here that the characteristics of semiconducting SWCNT FETs are also sensitive to the concentration, pH and ion type of the ionic solution when the electrolyte is inside the CNT. Such sensitivity is not observed at the outside surface of a semiconducting SWCNT. This opens a new avenue for building new types of CNT sensor devices in which the SWCNT concurrently functions as a nanochannel and an electronic detector.
碳纳米管（CNTs）作为纳米电子学材料而闻名，并且在化学和生物传感器中作为传感元件具有很大的应用潜力。最近，已经证明 CNT 是有效的纳米流道，并且物质通过小直径 CNT 的传输速度非常快，具有选择性，并且可以在单分子水平上进行操作。已经表明，半导体单壁 CNT（SWCNT）场效应晶体管（FET）的传输特性对内部水润湿敏感。我们在这里报告，当电解质在 CNT 内部时，半导体 SWCNT FET 的特性也对离子溶液的浓度，pH 值和离子类型敏感。在半导体 SWCNT 的外表面上不会观察到这种敏感性。这为构建新型 CNT 传感器设备开辟了新途径，其中 SWCNT 同时充当纳米通道和电子检测器。
