Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Sendova, Mariana

Keywords

Raman Spectroscopy, Carbon Nanotubes, Physics

Area of Concentration

Physics

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are quickly becoming a very important subject both in physics/materials research and direct industrial application. Their unique electronic and material properties (such as the greatest tensile strength of any known material) create interest both for physicists probing nature and engineers in need of high performance materials. In this work studied the effects of filling carbon nanotubes with four guest materials: Tellurium, Selenium, HgTe and PbI2. Raman spectra were taken of all these materials at a range of temperatures between 80 Kelvin and 730 Kelvin and compared to spectra taken from unfilled carbon nanotubes. Spectral features were mathematically fitted and these fits used to produce frequency values for the resonant phonon modes of the nanotube systems. These resonant values were then applied to a theoretical oscillator model of the nanotube and used to determine the strength of the coupling between the filling materials and the outside carbon atoms. This research both points to a new method for determining the strength of nanotube-filler interaction and gives resulting data for several filling materials.

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