title: Long nanotube dielectric properties used as sensors of large molecules: a semicontinuum approach.
abstract: A semicontinuum approach on the basis of an effective polarizability tensor per length and radius units is used to describe the dielectric response of a long single wall nanotube to the adsorption of an extended molecule. Changes in the permittivity ratio of the nanotube+molecule over the nanotube alone, which are directly connected to frequency shifts of the nanotube in a resonator configuration due to the presence of the molecule, provide a test of sensitivity of the system. The behavior of this ratio is analyzed for linear and circular geometries of the molecule, as a function of the tube characteristics (length and radius) and of the molecular size and polarizability distribution. Extension to three dimensional systems with a large set of polarizable centers is discussed in terms of self-polarization of the centers and morphology of the surface of the sensed system.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Moléculaire, UMR 6624, Faculté des Sciences, La Bouloie, Université de Franche-Comté, F25030 Besançon Cedex, France. fabien.picaud@univ-fcomte.fr
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Picaud
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Langlet
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Girardet
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*