Diameter selective characterization of single-wall carbon nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to analyze diameter-specific behaviors in single-wall carbon nanotubes by transforming fullerene peapods into double-wall nanotubes and examining their diameter distributions.

Contribution

The study presents a novel characterization technique for diameter selectivity in SWCNTs based on transformation from peapods to double-wall nanotubes, revealing new insights into inner nanotube formation.

Findings

Small diameter nanotubes close first during healing.

High yield of very small diameter inner nanotubes from C70 peapods.

Absence of mid-diameter inner tubes explained by peapod stability competition.

Abstract

A novel method is presented which allows the characterization of diameter selective phenomena in SWCNTs. It is based on the transformation of fullerene peapod materials into double-wall carbon nanotubes and studying the diameter distribution of the latter. The method is demonstrated for the diameter selective healing of nanotube defects and yield from C$_{70}$ peapod samples. Openings on small diameter nanotubes are closed first. The yield of very small diameter inner nanotubes from C$_{70}$ peapods is demonstrated. This challenges the theoretical models of inner nanotube formation. An anomalous absence of mid-diameter inner tubes is observed and explained by the suppressed amount of C$_{70}$ peapods due to the competition of the two almost equally stable standing and lying C$_{70}$ peapod configurations.