Chirality distribution of single-walled carbon nanotubes grown from gold nanoparticles

• Published in: Carbon (New York) 2022-06, Vol.192, p.259-264
• Main Authors: Lv, Shiwei, Wu, Qianru, Xu, Ziwei, Yang, Tao, Jiang, Kaili, He, Maoshuai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Au catalyst; Density functional theory; Large chiral angle; Single-walled carbon nanotube
• ISSN: 0008-6223; 1873-3891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2022.02.051

Au nanoparticles with diameters about 1.4 nm were dispersed onto porous Si3N4 grids and applied for growing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by chemical vapor deposition. Particularly, SWCNTs with diameters in the range of 0.75–1.8 nm were produced at a reaction temperature of 700 °C using CO as the carbon precursor. Nanobeam electron diffraction characterizations revealed that most of the SWCNTs have large chiral angles and zigzag SWCNTs were hardly detected. Density functional theory calculations showed that the SWCNT-Au interface formation energy and the SWCNT growth kinetics account for the enrichment of large chiral angle SWCNTs in the product. To correlate single-walled carbon nanotube chirality with the element of Au, thermal chemical vapor deposition growth is performed on uniform Au nanoparticles at 700 °C using CO as the carbon precursor. The nanotube chirality distribution is determined by electron diffraction technique, which reveals a bias to large chrial angle species, a result of low tube-Au interface formation energy and high stability of the extruded edge hexagons. [Display omitted]