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In this paper, we present our results of experimental and numerical pull-out tests on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) embedded in palladium. We prepared simple specimens by employing standard silicon wafers, physical vapor deposition of palladium and deposition of CNTs with a simple drop coating technique. An AFM cantilever with known stiffness connected to a nanomanipulation system was utilized inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) as a force sensor to determine forces acting on a CNT during the pull-out process. SEM-images of the cantilever attached to a CNT have been evaluated for subsequent displacement steps with greyscale correlation to determine the cantilever deflection. We compare the experimentally obtained pull-out forces with values of numerical investigations by means of molecular dynamics and give interpretations for deviations according to material impurities or defects and their influence on the pull-out data. We find a very good agreement of force data from simulation and experiment, which is 17 nN and in the range of 10-61 nN, respectively. Our findings contribute to the ongoing research of the mechanical characterization of CNT-metal interfaces. This is of significant interest for the design of future mechanical sensors utilizing the intrinsic piezoresistive effect of CNTs or other future devices incorporating CNT-metal interfaces

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The authors propose an on-chip microfluidic flow chemistry for non-covalent functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as channel material in nanoelectronic carbon-nanotube field-effect transistors (CNT-FETs) specifically aiming for personalized optoplasmonic sensor solutions. Applying pyrene alkanethiol derivatives, dissolved in chloroform, and a dispersion of gold nanoparticles in triglyme, the authors conduct the proof-of-principle to fabricate arrays of photosensitive CNT-FETs using flow chemistry on wafercompatible hardware. The spectral photoresponse of the obtained sensor devices appears clear and reproducible and can be related to the surface plasmon polaritons of the gold nanoparticles. The sensor devices yield photometric responsivities of R A % 8 Â 10 À3 AW À1 and response times of t 0 % 9 s. The results extend a previously reported approach for covalent functionalization (Blaudeck et al., Microelectron. Eng. 2015, 137, 135) and show the potential of flow chemistry combined with wafer-level microfabrication for selectively functionalized nanostructured sensor arrays.