Continued growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes from open-ended SWNT substrates

Abstract

We prepared nanoscopically flat open-ended SWNT substrates from SWNT spun fibers by using the microtome cutting technique or the focused ion beam cutting technique followed by various etching and cleaning schemes or alternatively from vertically aligned SWNT film by flipping-over. Deposited catalyst was docked to the open ends of SWNTs, and carbon feedstocks were catalyzed into continued single-walled carbon nanotube growth resembling 1D molecular epitaxy. The data obtained from Raman spectroscopy indicates that the (n, m) structure of the newly grown SWNT was cloned from that of the pre-existing SWNT substrate. Such results lead us to believe that this method will provide us with a means of chirality-controlled SWNTs growth on a macroscopic scale using a fairy general and scalable setup in the future