EFFECT OF GAS ADSORPTION ON THE ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF SINGLE WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES MATS

Single wall nanotubes have been made by arc-discharge method. Residual impurities (fullerenes, amorphous carbon, catalyst metals…) have been removed by tangential filtration process followed by high temperature annealing under vacuum (1200 °C). In this work we present results on the influence of the surrounding gas nature (N 2 , H 2 , CO 2 , H 2 O…) on the electrical resistivity of carefully outgassed mat of such samples. In particular, we have observed that the sample resistance exhibits a strong dependence on water contamination during the transfer to the measurement reactor.