Decoration of suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes with soft-landed size-selected metal nanoparticles

We describe a technique to prepare ensembles of neat, unbundled single-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with pure size-filtered metal nanoparticles. Polymer-encased nanotubes are drop-cast on nanoporous transmission electron microscope membrane grids, mounted within a nanoparticle-deposition apparatus, baked in situ to remove the polymer coating, and exposed to a beam of pure size-selected metal nanoparticles. Subsequent electron microscopy imaging reveals the presence of nanoparticles supported by pure suspended single-walled nanotubes. This method is promising for efficient production of prototype chemical and physical devices which require the presence of clean well-defined nanoparticle-nanotube hybrids for characterization, imaging, and applications.