Fused carbon nanotube-nanocrystal heterostructures and methods of making the same

1. A fused heterostructure comprising a carbon nanotube and at least one nanocrystal, wherein the nanocrystal is directly attached by a covalent linkage to at least one oxygen moiety on the nanotube, and wherein there is no intermediary linker between the nanotube and the nanocrystal.

2. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the covalent linkage is a coordinative linkage.

3. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein said at least one oxygen moiety is selected from the group consisting of a carboxyl group, a hydroxyl group, an aldehydic group, a ketonic group, an esteric group and an etheric group.

4. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the nanocrystal is a transition metal chalcogenide.

5. The heterostructure according to claim 4 wherein the transition metal chalcogenide nanocrystal is a wurtzite cadmium selenide, a zinc blende cadmium selenide, cadmium sulfide, cadmium telluride, zinc selenide, or zinc sulfide.

6. The heterostructure according to claim 4 wherein the transition metal chalcogenide nanocrystal is a mercury sulfide, mercury selenide, mercury telluride or zinc telluride.

7. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the nanocrystal is gallium arsenide, indium gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, indium arsenide.

8. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the nanocrystal is a metal oxide.

9. The heterostructure according to claim 8 wherein the metal oxide is a titanium dioxide, zirconium oxide, aluminum oxide, iron oxide, ruthenium oxide, or silicon oxide.

10. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the nanocrystal is a colloidal elemental metal.

11. The heterostructure according to claim 10 wherein the colloidal elemental metal is gold, silver, platinum, copper, germanium or silicon.

12. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the nanocrystal is a nanobimetallic dispersion.

13. The hetero structure according to claim 12 wherein the nanobimetallic dispersion is silver/iridium, platinum/gold, silver/palladium, platinum/palladium, nickel/palladium or platinum/ruthenium.

14. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the carbon nanotube is single-walled.

15. The heterostructure according to claim 14 wherein the diameter of the single-walled carbon nanotube is about 0.7 to about 2.5 nm.

16. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the carbon nanotube is multi-walled.

17. The heterostructure according to claim 16 wherein the diameter of the multi-walled carbon nanotube is about 3 to about 30 nm.

18. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the carbon nanotube is a semi-conductor.

19. The heterostructure according to claim 1 wherein the carbon nanotube is metallic.

20. A device comprising the heterostructure of claim 1 wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of sensors, a device used in molecular electronics, solar cells, a device used in optoelectronics, a device used in nanocatalysis, and scanning probe microscopy tips.

21. A nanoscale assembly comprising at least two heterostructures

wherein a heterostructure comprises a carbon nanotube and at least one nanocrystal, wherein the nanocrystal is attached by a covalent linkage to at least one oxygen moiety on the nanotube, wherein there is no intermediary linker between the nanotube and the nanocrystal, and wherein the hetero structures of the assembly are joined by nanocrystals.

22. The nanoscale assembly of claim 21 comprising at least about two to hundreds of thousands of nanotubes.