The possibility of using single-walled C nanotubes as materials with proton conductivity was investigated. Two possible mechanisms of migration of a proton over the surface of single-walled C nanotubes were proposed. The proton transfer over the outer surface of C nanotubes was calculated at the semi-empirical quantum-mechanical level. The surface profiles of the potential energy were constructed and used to calculate the activation energy of proton hopping from one C atom to another C atom. This activation energy could be useful for determining the temperature dependence of the relative hopping conductivity of a nanotube.

Proton Conductivity of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes - a Semi-Empirical Study. I.V.Zaporotskova, N.G.Lebedev, P.A.Zaporotskov: Physics of the Solid State, 2006, 48[4], 806-11