(Phys.org)—A LANL team and collaborators have made advances in the understanding of how carbon nanotubes move charges created by light. The research has applications for cheap, all-carbon-based photovoltaics and light detection elements. Their work measures exciton transport (excitons are small packets of energy made up of positive and negative charges) in carbon nanotubes at room temperature in a colloidal environment. A colloid is a substance that is evenly distributed throughout another substance, generally with particles that are between 1 and 1,000 nanometers in size. The nature of the colloidal environment influences the transport of charge-neutral excitons along the backbone of a carbon nanotube.
↧