Networks of pristine high quality single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), the SWNTs after Ar-plasma treatment (from 2 to 12 min) and carbon nanobuds (CNBs) have been tested for ethanol vapor sensing. It was found that the pristine high quality SWNTs do not exhibit any ethanol sensitivity, while the introduction of defects in the tubes results in the appearance of the ethanol sensitivity. The CNB network showed ethanol sensitivity without plasma treatment. Both CNB and low defect (after 3 min treatment) SWNT networks exhibit significant drift in the resistance baseline, while heavily plasma-treated (9 min) SWNTs exhibited high ethanol vapor sensitivity without the baseline change. The mechanisms of the ethanol sensitivity and stability after the plasma irradiation are attributed to the formation of sensitive dangling bonds in the SWNTs and formation of defect channels facilitating access of the ethanol vapor to all parts of the bundled nanotubes.

The properties of electronic devices based on carbon nanotube networks (CNTNs) depend on the carbon nanotube (CNT) deposition method used, which can yield a range of network morphologies. Here, we synthesize single-walled CNTs using an aerosol (floating catalyst) chemical vapor deposition process and deposit CNTs at room temperature onto substrates as random networks with various morphologies. We use four CNT deposition techniques: electrostatic or thermal precipitation, and filtration through a filter followed by press transfer or dissolving the filter. We study the mobility using pulsed measurements to avoid hysteresis, the on/off ratio, and the electrical noise properties of the CNTNs, and correlate them to the network morphology through careful imaging. Among the four deposition methods thermal precipitation is found to be a novel approach to prepare high-performance, partially aligned CNTNs that are dry-deposited directly after their synthesis. Our results provide new insight into the role of the network morphologies and offer paths towards tunable transport properties in CNT thin film transistors.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with specific diameters are required for various applications particularly in electronics and photonics, since the diameter is an essential characteristic determining their electronic and optical properties. In this work, the selective growth of SWCNTs with a certain mean diameter is achieved by the addition of appropriate amounts of CO₂ mixed with the carbon source (CO) into the aerosol (floating catalyst) chemical vapor deposition reactor. The noticeable shift of the peaks in the absorption spectra reveals that the mean diameters of the as-deposited SWCNTs are efficiently altered from 1.2 to 1.9 nm with increasing CO₂ concentration. It is believed that CO₂ acts as an etching agent and can selectively etch small diameter tubes due to their highly curved carbon surfaces. Polymer-free as-deposited SWCNT films with the desired diameters are used as saturable absorbers after stamping onto a highly reflecting Ag-mirror using a simple dry-transfer technique. Sub-picosecond mode-locked fiber laser operations at ~1.56 μm and ~2 μm are demonstrated, showing improvements in the performance after the optimization of the SWCNT properties.