Single-walled carbon nanotubes of controlled diameter and bundle size and their field emission properties

Field emission studies were conducted on as-produced CoMoCAT single-walled carbon nanotube/silica composites with controlled nanotube diameter and bundle size. It has been observed that the as-produced nanotube material does not need to be separated from the high-surface area catalyst to be an effective electron emitter. By adjusting the catalytic synthesis conditions, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) of different diameters and bundle sizes were synthesized. A detailed characterization involving Raman spectroscopy, optical absorption (vis-NIR), SEM, and TEM was conducted to identify the nanotube species present in the different samples. The synthesis reaction temperature was found to affect the nanotube diameter and bundle size in opposite ways; that is, as the synthesis temperature increased the nanotube average diameter became larger, but the bundle size became smaller. A gradual and consistent reduction in the emission onset field was observed as the synthesis temperature increased. It is suggested that the bundle size, more than the nanotube diameter or chirality, determines the field emission characteristics of these composites. This is a clear demonstration that field emission characteristics of SWNT can be controlled by the nanotube synthesis conditions.