Internal stress induced metallization of single-walled carbon nanotubes in a nanotube/glass conducting composite

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been incorporated into a (Pb, Zn)-phosphate glass host by a melt-quenching technique. Studies of the optical and electronic properties show that the nanotubes in the composite have suffered conformational deformations and attained a band structure of quasimetallic type, making the composite a good electrical conductor. Possible strains in the nanotubes of the composite such as radial compression, torsion and bending have been considered and their role in modulating the band structures has been analyzed by judging the change in band gap energies (ΔE) of the deformed SWCNTs using an equation which is based on the π-electron tight binding model. The effect of σ*-π* hybridization due to the radial compression in generating the metallicity is also discussed. The carrier transport in the composite above room temperature has been shown to be dominated by fluctuation induced tunneling.