Hydrogen Sensing and Sensitivity of Palladium-Decorated Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Defects

Individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) become sensitive to H, gas when their surfaces are decorated with Pd metal, and previous reports measure typical chemoresistive increases to be approximately 2-fold. Here, thousand-fold increases in resistance are demonstrated in the specific case where a Pd cluster decorates a SWCNT sidewall defect site. Measurements on single SWCNTs, performed both before and after defect incorporation, prove that defects have extraordinary consequences on the chemoresistive response, especially in the case of SWCNTs with metallic band structure. Undecorated defects do not contribute to H-2 chemosensitivity, indicating that this amplification is due to a specific but complex interdependence between a defect site's electronic transmission and the chemistry of the defect-Pd-H-2 system. Dosage experiments suggest a primary role is played by spillover of atomic H onto the defect site.