Assistant Professor (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Suzhou Institute of Nano Tech and Nano Bionics
Chinese Academy of Science
398 Ruoshui Road, Suzhou Industrial Park
Suzhou, Jiangsu 215125
P. R. China

Phone: +86-512-6287-2655 (o)
 lwchen2008@sinano.ac.cn

Hard Nano research at the Chen group

Dielectric properties of individual carbon nanotubes:

Carbon nantoubes (CNTs) exhibit extraordinary mechanical, thermal and electrical properties due to their unique one dimensional all-carbon structure. Dielectric properties of CNTs have far-reaching implications on their nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications, and are also critically important in the separation and solution processing of CNTs. Theoretical calculations have yielded some insights on the subject but it is a challenging measurement for experimental investigation because of the small size of CNT and mixed nature of as-produced nanotubes.

Our group is currently studying the transverse polarization of individual CNTs using electric force microscopy (EFM). When an AC bias (frequency ?) is applied between the sample and the conductive probe in EFM experiments, the interaction force between the charges on the probe and the induced dipole moment in CNT can be detected at the 2? frequency. Our experiment gives the first dielectric property measurement of individual CNT and verifies the tube size dependence of the transverse polarizability predicted by first-principle calculations.


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