Optically active defects improve carbon nanotubes

The properties of carbon-based nanomaterials can be altered and engineered through the deliberate introduction of certain structural ‘imperfections’. The challenge, however, is to control the number and type of these defects. Chemists and materials scientists have now demonstrated a new reaction pathway that enables such control for carbon nanotubes. It results in specific optically active sp3 defects, which are more luminescent and can emit single photons in the near-infrared.