h-BN sheathed β-SiC nanocables were synthesized under argon at 1200°C by the direct thermal treatment of a silicon powder mixed with turbostratic boron nitride. The structure and the chemical composition of these nanocables have been investigated by HRTEM, EDX and EELS. They have a diameter ranging from 10 to 80 nm. The core of these nanocomposites is composed of pure cubic silicon carbide and the outer layers have been shown to be hexagonal boron nitride planes, set in a parallel direction to the nanocables axis.

Flames offer a potential for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes in large quantities at modest costs. This study aims to examine the conditions for carbon nanotube formation in premixed flames and to characterize the morphology of solid carbon deposits and their primary formation mechanisms in the combustion environment. Single walled nanotubes have been observed in the post-flame region of a premixed acetylene/oxygen/argon flame operated at 50 Torr (6.7 kPa) with iron pentacarbonyl vapor used as a source of metallic catalyst. A thermophoretic sampling method and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the solid material present in the flame at various heights above burner (HAB), giving resolution of formation dynamics within the flame system. Catalyst particle formation and growth are observed in the immediate post-flame region, 10 to 40 mm HAB, with coagulation leading to typical particle sizes on the order of 5 to 10 nm. Nanotubes were observed to be present after 40 mm HAB (∼34 milliseconds) with nanotube inception occurring as early as 30mm HAB (∼25 ms). Between 40 and 70 mm HAB (∼30 ms), nanotubes are observed to form and coalesce into clusters. Based on the rapid appearance of nanotubes in this region, it appears that once initiated, the nanotube growth occurs quite rapidly, on the order of 10 νm/s. A nanotube formation ‘envelope’ is evident with a formation limited to fuel equivalence ratios between a lower limit of 1.5 and an upper limit of 1.9. A continuum of morphologies ranging from relatively clean clusters of nanotubes to amorphous material is observed between the lower and upper limits. We suggest that the diversity of morphologies is due to competition between carbon precipitation pathways. High resolution TEM revealed the nanotubes to be primarily single walled. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of single wall nanotubes and indicated a broad range of diameters and differences in chirality to plasma-arc generated material.

Single walled carbon nanotubes, SWNTs, are either semiconducting, metallic, or quasimetallic. Early theoretical work based on tight-binding models predicted that the band gap of semiconducting carbon nanotubes should increase with decreasing radius and this picture was later confirmed by experiment. However, local-density functional calculations indicate that these models are not accurate for narrow carbon nanotubes, where the effects of curvature can convert nanotubes expected to be semiconductors to metals. This raises the question, what is the largest semiconducting band gap possible in a SWNT? We present results from first-principles calculations for a range of carbon nanotubes with radii between 0.15 and 1 nm. These results indicate that the (4,3) carbon nanotube has the largest band gap of all SWNTs.

We have developed a series of processes for preparing carbon nanotube devices of probes and tweezers that operate in scanning probe microscope (SPM). The main developments are a nanotube cartridge where nanotubes are aligned at a knife-edge to be easily picked up one by one and a scanning-electron-microscope manipulator by which a nanotube is transferred from the nanotube cartridge onto a Si tip under observing its view.

We have also developed the electron ablation of a nanotube to adjust its length and the sharpening of a multiwall nanotube to have its inner layer with or without an end cap at the tip. For the sharpening process, the free end of a nanotube protruded from the cartridge was attached onto a metal-coated Si tip and the voltage was applied to the nanotube. At a high voltage giving the saturation of current, the current decreased stepwise in the temporal variation, indicating the sequential destruction of individual nanotube layers. The nanotube was finally cut at the middle of the nanotube bridge, and its tip was sharpened to have an inner layer with an opened end. Moving up the cartridge before cutting enables us to extract the inner layer with an end cap.

It is evidenced that the maximum current at each layer during the stepwise decrease depends on its circumference, and the force for extracting the inner layer with ∼ 5nm diameter is ∼ 4 nN.

Carbon nanotubes represent an attractive material option for many applications, including electromechanical actuators. Though single wall carbon nanotubes exhibit advantageous actuator properties, such as large force generation and low operating voltage, functional devices based on carbon nanotube actuation have not yet been reported. Here we describe the fabrication and performance evaluation of a 1×2 electromechanical optical fiber switch based on a carbon nanotube actuator. The side-to-side movement of the input fiber of the device between two output fibers is a result of the actuation of an assembly of carbon nanotubes that have been attached to the fiber. The intensities of optical signals exiting the two outputs are monitored, and switching times down to 30 ms are demonstrated. Initial results indicate that mechanical optical switches using carbon nanotube actuators may be preferable to switches using alternative technologies due to the inexpensive assembly, low operating power, potentially high switching speeds, and potentially low insertion loss of the carbon nanotube based devices.

Lithium intercalted carbon nanotubes have attracted considerable interest as perspective components for energy storage devices. We performed 13C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spin lattice relaxation measurements in a temperature range from 4 K up to 300 on alkali intercalated Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes in order to investigate the modifications of the electronic properties. The density of states at the Fermi level were determined for pristine, lithium and cesium intercalated carbon nanotubes and are discussed in terms of intercalation and charge transfer effects.

Ferromagnetic nanoclusters are very useful for a magnetic recording. However, the application of ferromagnetic nanoclusters is limited due to air-oxidation. One way to solve air- oxidation is to encapsulate ferromagnetic nanoclusters with inert materials such as carbon when they are produced. This allows us to keep excellent magnetic properties for a long time. In this work, we report a very simple synthetic method of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) encapsulated ferromagnetic cobalt nanoclusters by catalytic decomposing benzene over Co/silica-gel nano- scale catalysts. Unlike previous reports, the catalysts do not need to be pre-reduced prior to the forming of CNTs encapsulated cobalt nanoclusters, thus, the advantage of this method is that CNTs encapsulated ferromagnetic nanoclusters can be produced in one step, at a relatively low cost. High-resolution Transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the microstructures and compositions of the products. Experimental results revealed that the encapsulated Co was always presented as high temperature alpha-Co phase with fee structure, which frequently consists of twinned boundaries and stacking faults. Based on the experimental results, a possible growth mechanism of the CNTs encapsulated Co nanoclusters was proposed. Magnetic property measurements showed that the CNTs encapsulated cobalt nanoclusters possessed excellent magnetic properties.

The microstructure and field emission properties of multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were investigated. The comparisons are made between MWNTs synthesized by high temperature arc methods and low temperature CVD methods. The results of the HRTEM image clearly exhibit characteristic features of a multi walled carbon nanotube. Raman spectrum shows a stronger peak at about 1580 cm-1 indicating the formation of a well-graphitized carbon nanotube. It also shows the high temperature arc process can produce MWNT that has perfect graphitic layer structure and high I(G)/I(D) ratio. The Ratio of G-line (sp2 bond) and D-line(sp3 bond) of these MWNTs are about 2.8 to 5.2. From the field emission measurement, the low onset field is about 1.4 to 2.4 V/ m, and can be attributed to highly sharp tips and high electric conductivity of MWNTs.

Here we will present the state-of-the-art of the aerosol synthesis method. We demonstrate the reliability of this method by showing that the method can be successfully used for the synthesis of C and CNx multi walled nanotubes. For characterization, scanning- (SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) imaging have been carried out. The N/C ratio is determined using Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) combined with TEM.

Carbon nanotubes containing substitutionally “doped” nitrogen were synthesized using injection chemical vapor deposition methods. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy comparisons between materials grown with different nitrogen sources suggest that the nitrogen content of the nanotubes has little correlation with the total nitrogen content of the “dopant” gas. Tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy do, however, confirm that drastic distortions occur within the graphene lattice as the nitrogen is substituted. Further, donor states are clearly identifiable within the density of electronic states.

Multiwalled B-C-N nanotubes of various morphologies and chemical compositions were synthesized by reacting C-based nanotube templates with boron oxide and nitrogen at 1573 K- 2173 K. The nanotubes were thoroughly analysed using a high-resolution field-emission 300 kV transmission electron microscope (TEM), an energy-filtered field-emission 300 kV electron microscope (Omega filter), an electron energy loss spectrometer and an energy dispersion X-ray detector. Transport and field emission properties of the nanotubes were studied using a low energy electron point source microscope and via in-situ measurements in TEM equipped with a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) unit.

A carbon nanotube triode using Helicon Plasma-enhanced CVD with electroplated NiCo catalyst has been successfully fabricated. Isolated NiCo based metal catalyst was deposited at the bottom of the cathode wells by electroplating methods to control the density of carbon nanotubes and also reduce the activation energy of its growth. Helicon Plasma-enhanced CVD (HPECVD) has been used to deposit nanotubes at 400°C. Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were then grown selectively on the electroplated Ni catalyst. Field emission measurements were performed with a triode structure. At a cathode to anode gap of 1.1mm, the turn on voltage for the gate was 170V.

We describe the realization of high quality self-assembled single wall carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFET). A method using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) is used to obtain high yield selective deposition placement of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on predefined regions of a substrate. This is achieved with individual or small bundles of SWNTs and with high densities suitable for fabrication of integrated devices. We show that such positioned SWNTs can be electrically contacted to realize high performance transistors, which very well compare with state-of-the-art CNTFETs. We therefore validate the self-assembly approach to reliably fabricate efficient carbon nanotube based devices.