Single Wall CNT

Single-walled nanotubes are important form of carbon nanotube because they exhibit electric properties that are not exsist in the multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) variants. In particular, the band gap of SWNT can vary from zero to about 2 eV and their electrical conductivity can show metallic or semiconducting behavior.

Single-walled nanotubes are excellent conductors & the most likely candidate for miniaturizing electronics beyond the micro electromechanical scale currently used in electronics. The most basic building block of these systems is the electric wire.

Most single-walled nanotubes (SWNT) have a diameter of close to 1 nanometer, with a tube length that can be many millions of times longer. The structure of a SWNT can be conceptualized by wrapping a one-atom-thick layer of graphite called graphene into a seamless cylinder.

SWNTs exhibit a richness in electronic behavior that may be exploited for molecular device applications. For example, metallic nanotubes may be used in resonant tunneling devices and also function as interconnects between device elements. Semiconducting nanotubes have already shown their utility in nanometer-sized field-effect transistors.

The finite-sized SWNTs may be employed to raise the operating temperature of nanotube-based devices. Finally, metallic nanotubes decorated with magnetic impurities exhibit an enhancement in their conductance at low energies, and unique applications of these magnetic nano-structures may soon be uncovered.