The key difference between carbon nanotubes and graphene is that carbon nanotubes show metallic or semiconducting properties, whereas graphene shows a semimetal nature.
Carbon nanotubes are a type of tubes that are made up of carbon atoms, and the diameter of these tubes are typically measured with a nanometer scale. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon that occurs as two-dimensional sheets.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What are Carbon Nanotubes
3. What is Graphene
4. Carbon Nanotubes vs Graphene in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Carbon Nanotubes vs Graphene
What are Carbon Nanotubes?
Carbon nanotubes are a type of tubes that are made up of carbon atoms, and the diameter of these tubes are typically measured with a nanometer scale. A carbon nanotube often refers to single-wall carbon nanotubes, which are a type of allotrope of carbon that has properties intermediate to fullerene and flat graphene.
Carbon Nanotubes Properties and Uses
There are different unique properties of carbon nanotubes, including the bandgap varying from zero to 2 eV, metallic behaviour of electrical conductivity, high tensile strength, either metallic or semiconducting nature along the tubular axis, useful absorption, photoluminescence, and Raman spectroscopic properties, very good thermal conductance, the occurrence of crystallographic defects, etc.
When considering the applications of this material, it is useful in bulk form as composite fibres in polymers to enhance the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties, production of “Gecko tape”, tips for atomic force microscope probes, act as scaffolding for bond growth during tissue engineering, etc.
What is Graphene?
Graphene is an allotrope of carbon that occurs as two-dimensional sheets, which can be named as “two-dimensional hexagonal lattice”. Moreover, it is an infinitely large aromatic molecule. There are different pathways of producing graphene, which includes mechanical methods, splitting monolayer carbon, chemical methods, chemical vapour deposition, carbon dioxide reduction, supersonic spray method, laser method, ion implantation, and CMOS-compatible graphene production.
Graphene Properties and Uses
This material has a unique set of properties which include the strong structure of graphene in comparison to its thickness which is stronger even than steel, ability to conduct heat and electricity efficiently, ability to burn at very low temperatures, near transparency, the complicated structure of graphene structure, and nonlinear diamagnetism. Moreover, graphene has large quantum oscillations. The carbon atoms at the edges of the graphene sheet have specific chemical reactivity, and the defects that occur within its sheet structure can enhance the chemical reactivity. In addition, these graphene sheets tend to stack, forming a graphite structure.
Each atom in the graphene sheet connects with its three nearest neighbours through sigma chemical bonds and also contributes to one of its electrons to the conduction band that is existing between the whole sheet structure. This type of conduction bands makes the graphene structure a semimetal having unusual electronic properties that can be described using theories for massless relativistic particles.
Figure 01: A Single-Layer Graphene Oxide Undergoing High-Temperature Chemical Treatment
There are different applications of graphene, which include using it as a transparent and flexible conductor that can play an important role in material/device applications, (e.g. solar cells, light-emitting diodes, touch panels, and smart windows or phones.
What is the Difference Between Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene?
Carbon nanotubes are a type of tubes that are made up of carbon atoms, and the diameter of these tubes are typically measured with a nanometer scale. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon that occurs as two-dimensional sheets. The key difference between carbon nanotubes and graphene is that carbon nanotubes show metallic or semiconducting properties, whereas graphene shows a semimetal nature.
The following infographic summarizes the differences between carbon nanotubes and graphene in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – Carbon Nanotubes vs Graphene
Carbon nanotubes are a type of tubes that are made up of carbon atoms, and the diameter of these tubes are typically measured with a nanometer scale. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon that occurs as two-dimensional sheets. The key difference between carbon nanotubes and graphene is that carbon nanotubes show metallic or semiconducting properties whereas graphene shows a semimetal nature.
Reference:
1. “Carbon Nanotube.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Single-layer graphene oxide chemistry results in morphological changes” By Raywhitby (talk) – I (Raywhitby (talk)) created this work entirely by myself to be used by Elsevier B.V. (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
