Very High-Quality Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Grown Using a Structured and Tunable Porous Fe/MgO Catalyst

Fe/MgO nanoparticle catalysts were prepared and used to grow single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) from the decomposition of methane. The porous structure of the catalyst can be tailored by an ethanol-thermal treatment and calcination. Catalysts with sufficiently large pores (50 nm to 5 mu m) can produce very high-quality SWCNTs that had an intensity ratio of D band to G band in their Raman spectra of less than 0.02-0.03. These SWCNTs had fewer defects than any other SWNT products from the chemical vapor deposition process previously reported.