Effect of Structural Defects and Adsorbates on the Ballistic Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes

Using the Landauer–Buttiker formalism and the nonorthogonal tight-binding Hamiltonian with NTBM parametrization, the electron transmission and conductivity of metal armchair-type nanotubes of subnanometer diameter are studied. We consider the effect of various structural defects (Stone–Wales defect, monovacancy, replacing a nitrogen atom) and radicals adsorbed on the nanotube surface (H, O, OH, COOH) on the electronic characteristics of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). It is found that structural defects and adsorbates have different effects on their conductivity. In this case, two competing processes are observed. On the one hand, this is a weakening of the conductive properties of CNTs due to the increase in the number of scattering centers, and, on the other hand, the increase in conductivity due to structural relaxation processes.