ABSTRACT
It is little known1 that as far back as in 1952 Radushkevich and Lukianovich published clear images (Figure 2.1) of 50 nm diameter tubes made of carbon in the Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry.2 Later results, obtained by Oberlin et al.,3 clearly showed hollow carbon £bers with nanometerscale diameters using a vapor-growth technique. Additionally, the authors showed a TEM image of a nanotube consisting of a single wall of graphene. Later, Dresselhaus4 referred to this image as a single-walled nanotube (SWNT). Results of chemical and structural characterization of carbon nanoparticles produced by a thermocatalytical disproportionation of carbon monoxide were reported in Ref. [5]. Since the formal discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991,6 a number of device applications, such as full-color displays, £eld-effect transistors, and molecular computers, have been envisioned.7,8 These applications are highly dependent on the electronic properties of the CNTs, which can be tuned by their helicity, diameter, and defects presence. In recent years, novel strategies have been devoted to modify physical properties of the CNTs by surface modi£cation with organic, inorganic, and biological species.9-14 During the last 20 years, the number of reports on carbon nanotubes, one of the hottest topics in nanotechnology, corresponds to hundreds of thousands.
