Photophysics of Carbon Nanotubes Interfaced with Organic and Inorganic Materials
Igor A. Levitsky, William B. Euler, Victor A. Karachevtsev, Springer, 2012, London, 163 pages
An excerpt from the Preface
While the photophysics of pristine carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are studied relatively thoroughly, a much less explored area is the light interaction with nanotubes interfaced with other materials (e.g., organic, inorganic, bulk or nanoscale structures forming physical or chemical bonding with nanotubes). An addition of another compound to CNT and creation of CNT-based nanohybrid open new opportunities for researchers; first of all, because of much versatility of CNT composites and existence of interface between CNT and its counterpart, which is not possible for pristine nanotubes. Interfacial region in such hybrids plays a critical role being responsible for various photoinduced mechanisms such as charge transfer and recombination, energy transfer, photo-mechanical elastic response, thermal effect, spectral changes in Raman, absorption, and photoluminescence. This aspect, photophysics of carbon nanotubes interfaced with other materials, is the main focus of the presented monograph covering three areas: (i) light harvesting and energy conversion, photoinduced charge transfer, polarization and charge separation of CNT-based nanohybrids (I. A. Levitsky); (ii) the use of CNT composite for photo-mechanical actuators (W. B. Euler); and (iii) CNT/DNA hybrid optical spectroscopy, structure, and MD simulations and related applications in biosensing and biomedicine (V. A. Karachevtsev).