Tailoring N-doped single and double wall carbon nanotubes from a nondiluted carbon/nitrogen feedstock

The past decade has witnessed a substantial increase in research on synthesis techniques for pure and doped carbon nanotubes and their involved parameters. However, there is a missing link between the ideal synthesis conditions for high quality functionalized structures with heteroatoms such as nitrogen and the formation of different bonding environments through the actual process. We describe here an approach to prepare high quality and substitutionally N-doped single and double walled carbon nanotubes with a defined diameter range from a nondiluted carbon/nitrogen feedstock. This not only illustrates the dependence on the combined synthesis parameters but also provides a fundamental insight into the formation of nitrogen volatile species during the feedstock pyrolysis versus the actual N-incorporation profile within the walls.