Tungsten Alloy Produces Purer Nanotubes Toughly

Researchers in China have taken a major step towards overcoming one of the main hurdles that is hampering the exploitation of carbon nanotubes for many high-tech applications – how to synthesise chirally pure samples.

The chirality of a single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) is defined by the diameter of the tube and the wrapping angle, or twist (m), expressed as the index (n,m). Slight changes in these parameters can lead to markedly different properties, so being able to produce a single chirality on demand would represent a major step forward. So far, however, this has proved challenging.

Now, researchers led by Yan Li of Peking University have developed a nanocrystalline tungsten-containing alloy catalyst that that produces SWNTs with more than 90% uniform chirality of the form.

Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) methods of producing SWNTs rely on a carbon-containing vapour, such as ethanol, attaching to nanocrystals of a metal-containing catalyst, whose structure largely determines the chirality of the resulting nanotube. Typically these catalysts contain mixtures of metals such as iron, nickel, copper or cobalt.

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