[Physics] the electrical conductivity (S/m) of a carbon nanotube

nanoscience

I have been searching around for a while for this but I am having trouble finding any actual figures, all I can seem to find is that it is "very high".

So I am wondering, does anyone have any figures of what the electrical conductivity of a carbon nanotube is, a theoretical or estimated answer is fine. I am preferably looking for the answer in $Sm^{-1}$.

Best Answer

The numbers will greatly vary depending on the kind of nanotube. The following are some examples from cursory Google searches.

Electrical conductivity was increased by 50 percent to 1,230 siemens per meter.

http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wms-zhu-cnt-composites/

And that’s not all: colossal carbon tubes are ductile and can be stretched, which makes them attractive for applications requiring high toughness. They also have high electrical conductivities of around 103 siemens per centimetre at room temperature, compared with 102 siemens per centimetre for multi-walled carbon nanotube fibres.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2008/aug/08/carbon-nanotubes-but-without-the-nano

The researchers found that the electrical conductivity increased with increasing nanotube content and temperature – in contrast to earlier findings. They observed a maximum conductivity of 3375 siemens per metre at 77°C in samples that were 15% nanotube by volume.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2003/aug/20/nanotubes-boost-ceramic-performance

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