Review of the arc process modeling for fullerene and nanotube production

The arc process remains the easiest and cheapest technique to obtain significant quantities of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with excellent structural properties. These nanotubes are quite straight and present few topological defects. However, the major inconvenience of this process remains the difficult in situ control of the final material's purity and physical properties. The first NASA/Rice workshop on growth mechanisms was devoted to addressing some specific questions on how and where the nanotubes are formed in several processes including the arc. Further advancement requires a detailed understanding of the growth mechanisms of fullerene, nanotubes and soot and their connection with process parameters. This approach is not highly developed today because of the coupling made by non-equilibrium plasma with the nonlinear chemical system makes, in which rate coefficients and reactions are not well known and this makes modeling difficult. This article is an attempt to analyze the effect of the individual arc parameters yielding guidelines for building a mechanistic understanding of carbon based nanomaterial growth in the arc discharge.