Defects and Disorder in Carbon Nanotubes

The presence of defects subtly alters all of a material’s properties. Chemical reactivity, mechanical strength, optical absorption, and electronic transport all vary with defect concentration. Despite these wide-ranging effects, however, it is very rare for defect control to be critical to a particular application. For example, electronic circuits perform perfectly well in the presence of defects. Even though a defect might trap or scatter charge carriers, a typical conductor will electrostatically screen such sites and still maintain a preponderance of unaffected carriers and conduction channels.