title: Wrapping cytochrome c around single-wall carbon nanotube: engineered nanohybrid building blocks for infrared detection at high quantum efficiency.
abstract: Biomolecule cytochrome c (Cty c), a small molecule of a chain of amino acids with extraordinary electron transport, was helically wrapped around a semiconductive single-wall carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) to form a molecular building block for uncooled infrared detection with two uniquely designed functionalities: exciton dissociation to free charge carriers at the heterojunction formed on the s-SWCNT/Cty c interface and charge transport along the electron conducting chain of Cty c (acceptor) and hole conducting channel through s-SWCNT (donor). Such a design aims at addressing the long-standing challenges in exciton dissociation and charge transport in an SWCNT network, which have bottlenecked development of photonic SWCNT-based infrared detectors. Using these building blocks, uncooled s-SWCNT/Cyt c thin film infrared detectors were synthesized and shown to have extraordinary photoresponsivity up to 0.77 A W(-1) due to a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) in exceeding 90%, which represents a more than two orders of magnitude enhancement than the best previously reported on CNT-based infrared detectors with EQE of only 1.72%. From a broad perspective, this work on novel s-SWCNT/Cyt c nanohybrid infrared detectors has developed a successful platform of engineered carbon nanotube/biomolecule building blocks with superior properties for optoelectronic applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA.
authors.forename: Youpin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA.
authors.forename: Qingfeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA.
authors.forename: Jamie Samantha
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Wilt
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA.
authors.forename: Maogang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA.
authors.forename: Shenqiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA.
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D045304:Cytochromes c / Q000737:chemistry*; D007259:Infrared Rays; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D045304:Cytochromes c