Abstract/Summary

The passage of an electric current, or the application of an electrostatic charge, can be used to modify the structure of carbon materials in a variety of ways. The simplest example of these involves the use of high current densities to produce electrical breakdown, as a result of Joule heating or electromigration. This has been used by a number of groups to create gaps in carbon materials in order to fabricate devices such as transistors. More complex structural transformations have been observed when electric fields are applied to carbon nanomaterials. These involve the formation of carbon structures made up of single-layer or bilayer graphene with highly irregular morphologies, displaying many unusual features, including nanotube–graphene junctions. Although the nature of these transformations is disputed, they may be partly a result of electrostatic charging rather than the passage of an electric current. It has also been demonstrated that electric fields can be used to induce exfoliation of graphite, both on the nano scale and macroscopically. This article is an attempt to provide an overview of the different ways in which carbon materials can be engineered using electricity. In addition to pure carbons, work on doped and filled nanotubes is covered, and the possibility of using electric fields in “graphene origami” is discussed.