Fingerprinting seamless single-walled carbon nanotube junctions via the migration of encapsulated N-2 molecules from bottom to top: are arrays of VA-SWNTs continuous?

Author(s)
Theerapol Thurakitseree, Christian Kramberger, Pisith Singjai, Shigeo Maruyama
Abstract

Structure control such as diameter changes along single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be achieved in arrays of vertically aligned (VA-) SWNTs by switching the feedstock during growth. The local nature of the macroscopic transition from one diameter to another is then questioned as one can either envisage seamless transitions or discontinuous individual SWNTs. Here, we demonstrate that encapsulated molecules can serve as markers to doubtlessly identify seamless interconnections in macroscopic samples. A migration of nitrogen molecules inside the continuous SWNTs is observed using bulk scale measurements on double-layered SWNT arrays synthesized from different carbon/nitrogen feedstocks. The existence of N-2 molecules at the top of the SWNT arrays proves that there are continuous SWNTs throughout the double layered arrays with different diameters.

Organisation(s)
Physics of Nanostructured Materials
External organisation(s)
Maejo University, Chiang Mai University, University of Tokyo, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Journal
Nanoscale
Volume
9
Pages
4002-4006
No. of pages
5
ISSN
2040-3364
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/c6nr09901g
Publication date
03-2017
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103018 Materials physics, 210006 Nanotechnology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Materials Science(all)
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/fingerprinting-seamless-singlewalled-carbon-nanotube-junctions-via-the-migration-of-encapsulated-n2-molecules-from-bottom-to-top-are-arrays-of-vaswnts-continuous(d7ee86fd-1156-467c-b912-a529f8f75c9a).html