Electromechanical properties of metallic, quasimetallic, and semiconducting carbon nanotubes under stretching

Abstract

A systematic investigation of the electromechanical properties of various type of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) was carried out under tensile strain. In the small strain range, quasimetallic nanotubes exhibit the highest sensitivity to tensile stretching while metallic nanotubes were the least sensitive, in qualitative agreement with existing theoretical expectations. The result show that, at room temperature, quasimetallic SWNTs were potentially useful for highly sensitive electro-mechanical sensors and could present a new type of strain gauge material.