A fundamental understanding of the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes is vital when fabricating high-performance polymeric composites as well as transparent conductive films. Herein, the chirality-dependent transport mechanisms in peapod- and chemical vapor deposition-grown double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) films are discussed by identifying the chiralities of the inner and the outer tubes using fast Fourier transform image processing, as well as optical studies (e.g., Raman, UV, and photoluminescence spectroscopies). The observed conduction mechanisms are strongly dependent on the total fraction of the metallic inner and outer tubes within the DWNT samples. Furthermore, the contribution of the inner tubes to the electronic transport properties of DWNT films is confirmed by photochemically deactivating the outer tubes in both types of DWNT samples.
© 2011 American Chemical Society