Electrowetting in carbon nanotubes

We demonstrate reversible wetting and fitting of open single-watt carbon nanotubes with mercury by means of electrocapillary pressure originating from the application of a potential across an individual nanotube in contact with a mercury drop. Wetting improves the conductance in both metallic and semiconducting nanotube probes by decreasing contact resistance and forming a mercury nanowire inside the nanotube. Molecular dynamics simulations corroborate the electrocapillary-driven filling process and provide estimates for the imbibition speed and electrocapillary pressure.