Understand the Chiral Selectivity of Single Walled Carbon Nanotube growth by in situ optical imaging of individual and identified carbon nanotubes
Abstract
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have received tremendous attention since their discovery due to the combination of exceptional properties. However, the development of SWCNT-based technologies is hindered by the mixture of SWCNTs with different structures and properties in as-grow samples. To address this issue, our objective was to measure the growth kinetics of individual SWCNTs using a new imaging method named homodyne polarized optical microscopy (HPOM), and to correlate them with their structure independently measured by optical spectroscopies. Our first study was devoted at improving the understanding of HPOM spectra: we developed a model which allows to separate the intrinsic nanotube features from the contributions of the substrate and the optics. Our second study was devoted at demonstrating that individual SWCNTs can be imaged using HPOM under real growth conditions: it evidenced that individual SWCNTs grow at a constant growth rate until sudden termination. The lifetime also appears inversely related to the growth rate, which supports that the limiting step of nanotube growth is also responsible for the sudden termination. Finally, our third study was devoted to relating the growth kinetics of individual SWCNTs with their structure. It revealed that the growth rate is minimal for chiral angles of 19 and maximum for zigzag and armchair SWCNTs. Based on the correlation with defect density and observations of nanotube etching, this is rationalized by a competition at the nanotube edge between carbon integration and chiral-selective etching.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 23, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1106679
Entities
People
- Vincent Jourdain