ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the major research activities on carbon nanotubes (CNT) being developed in America, Europe and Asia. It provides useful information about the most advanced discoveries concerning this novel material and aims to stimulate the readers' interest in pursuing their vocation on the line of excellent scientists and outstanding experts. Semiconducting CNTs present the interesting characteristic of an electronic transport that can be switched "on" and "off", thus paving the way for their use as novel field effect transistors. Unlike many other materials, CNTs have demonstrated very weak electron-acoustic-phonon coupling and very large optical phonon energy of about 200 meV. In addition to electronics, semiconducting single-walled CNTs have shown a promising future in nanophotonics. An important aspect concerning CNTs is that the raw material needs to undergo an extensive surface functionalisation in order to become suitable tool for biomedical applications. A small part of H. Kataura's research is devoted to the separation of CNTs with different techniques.
