Thermal and electronic transport of semiconducting nanoparticle-functionalized carbon nanotubes

Semiconducting nanoparticle-functionalized carbon nanotubes are very promising for many electronic systems and devices. In this paper, the synthesis of carbon nanotube/semiconducting nanoparticle hybrids was firstly demonstrated by a facile solution method and the effect of nanoparticle functionalization on electronic/thermal transport was investigated. Both experimental tests and theoretical analysis indicated that the thermal conductivity of nanoparticle/carbon nanotube network at room temperature was reduced by ∼37% in comparison with non-functionalized carbon nanotube networks, and this could be ascribed to the nanoparticle decoration-induced phonon scattering. In addition, the thermoelectric power factor was increased by 24-fold while the figure of merit was enhanced by 30-fold. The theoretical analysis suggested these significant improvements should originate from the carrier scattering at the carbon nanotube-nanoparticle interfaces and the decoration-augmented mismatch of the Fermi level and the mean transport energy level.