Enhanced field emission behavior from boron-doped double-walled carbon nanotubes synthesized by catalytic chemical vapor deposition

Attempts to dope carbon nanotube (CNT) with impurities in order to control the electronic properties of the CNT is a natural course of action. Boron is known to improve both the structural and electronic properties. In this report, we study the field emission properties of Boron-doped double-walled CNT (DWCNT). Boron-doped DWCNT films were fabricated by catalytic decomposition of tetrahydrofuran and triisopropyl borate over a Fe-Mo/MgO catalyst at 900°C. We measured the field emission current by varying the doping amount of Boron from 0.8 to 1.8 wt%. As the amount of doped boron in the DWCNT increases, the turn-on-field of the DWCNT decreases drastically from 6 V/μm to 2 V/μm. The current density of undoped CNT is 0.6 mA/cm ² at 9 V, but a doped-DWCNT sample with 1.8 wt% achieved the same current density only at only 3.8 V. This shows that boron doped DWCNTs are potentially useful in low voltage operative field emitting device such as large area flat panel displays.