title: Electronic conduction in polymers, carbon nanotubes and graphene.
abstract: In the years since the discovery of organic polymers that exhibited electrical conductivities comparable to some metals, other novel carbon-based conductors have been developed, including carbon nanotubes and graphene (monolayers of carbon atoms). In this critical review, we discuss the common features and the differences in the conduction mechanisms observed in these carbon-based materials, which range from near ballistic and conventional metallic conduction to fluctuation-assisted tunnelling, variable-range hopping and more exotic mechanisms. For each category of material, we discuss the dependence of conduction on the morphology of the sample. The presence of heterogeneous disorder is often particularly important in determining the overall behaviour, and can lead to surprisingly similar conduction behaviour in polymers, carbon nanotube networks and chemically-derived graphene (122 references).
authors.affiliation: MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology and School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, P. O. Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. Alan.Kaiser@vuw.ac.nz
authors.forename: Alan B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Viera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Skákalová
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D006108:Graphite; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D011108:Polymers; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D011108:Polymers; D006108:Graphite