Possible tactics to improve the growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition

The growth time, growth mode and the method of preparing the supported catalysts play an important role in the growth of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs). Their effects on the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of SWNTs with MgO-supported catalysts were investigated in this study. It is shown that the growth rate of SWNTs was large during the initial few minutes of growth, however the quality of the tubes was low owing to the formation of many defects. Long term growth may favor the formation of tubes with high quality and high yield, but the introduction of other forms of carbon (impurities) is also unavoidable. There was a balance between the increase in yield and quality and sacrifice of the purity during growth of SWNTs. MgO-supported catalysts prepared by the co-precipitation method were found to be more effective for the synthesis of SWNTs than those prepared by the widely used impregnation method. The size and dispersion state of the catalyst were found to be crucial in enhancing the growth of SWNTs. In addition, growth on the surface of SWNTs over nanosized catalyst films was shown to be more favorable for the synthesis of tube products with higher quality, yield and purity. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.