Effects of B-N co-doping into the ultra-small diameter zigzag single-walled carbon nanotubes: A density functional theory study

The boron(B)-nitrogen(N) co-doping ultra-small diameter (5,0) and (4,0) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been investigated by using the first-principles pseudopotential plane wave method. The results show that B-N pairs are easy to dope into ultra-small diameter zigzag nanotubes, which have numbers of differences with other large diameter nanotubes, and the B-N co-doping configurations are the energetically stable structures. Furthermore, by introducing B-N pairs, the (5,0) and (4,0) SWCNTs both transform from metal to semiconductor. These ultra-small diameter nanotubes have potential to be applied in semiconductor integrated circuit of extremely small size. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.