Single-walled carbon nanotubes show promise as materials for modern fiber optical applications due to their chirality-dependent electronic and optical properties. However, the quantum yields are relatively low due to the existence of low-lying dark states. Covalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) brightens their emission by making the lowest energy transitions optically active and enables tuning of their optical properties through the generation of sp<sup>3</sup>-hybridized defects. This process introduces a variety of emission features that must be controlled for use in practical applications. This is a hurdle because the origin of the emissive diversity isn’t well understood. Our work, as part of a highly collaborative effort between experimentalists and theorists, has attributed the emissive diversity to the presence of multiple localized defect geometries each with distinct emission energies. We further reveal the chirality-dependent trends of emission energies with respect to individual defect configurations. Furthermore, we present strategies for controlling the defect geometries, and therefore the observed emission energies, by changing the concentration and types of defects. This work is instrumental in guiding experimental efforts toward the generation of functionalized SWCNTs with tunable emission energies.

Controlling emission energies in functionalized carbon nanotubes

2019 Fall National Meeting

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