Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Response to Neutron and Gamma Irradiation

Abstract

The unique electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have sparked interest for using such nanomaterials in the nuclear industry and within radiation detection devices. To explore the application of SWNTs in the nuclear industry, it was first deemed necessary to study how SWNTs respond to the two main types of radiation occurring in nuclear environments, neutrons and gamma rays.

SWNT samples were irradiated in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with neutrons and gamma rays at incremented lengths of time allowing for multiple fluence intensities to be received by the samples. After irradiation, Raman spectroscopy was used to monitor the damage incurred from neutron and gamma irradiation. It was found that disorder within the SWNT lattice network increased with increasing irradiation intensity. The results indicated that the gamma irradiation was causing the majority of the damage with little to no damage caused by the neutron irradiation. Further investigation showed that the non-linearity of the disorder increase with increasing irradiation intensity was typical of sample doping instead of the expected particle impacts. It was concluded that the gamma irradiation was generating dopants within the SWNTs by the process of water radiolysis. Water vapor trapped between the SWNT film layer and the substrate that the film layer was placed on was identified as the source of the sample dopants. Although unexpected, the results from this experiment have provided insight into a potential gamma radiation detection technique using SWNTs that has never been considered until now.