Efficient synthesis of individual single-walled carbon nanotube by water-based catalyst with poly(vinylpyrrolidone)

Individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were synthesized on the patterned water-soluble catalyst by thermal chemical vapor deposition. The individual SWCNTs were obtained by introducing polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a dispersant. The number of SWCNTs between two electrodes were approximately 1-2 with an average diameter of about 1.7 nm and a yield of forming electrodes of nearly 70%. The PVP played an important role in dispersing catalysts and suppressing the active sites to limit the number of SWCNTs during synthesis, which is a critical condition for fabrication of field effect transistors (FETs). The measured I-V characteristics of the over layer-deposited electrodes revealed a clear gating effect in large portion, in good agreement with Raman observations in several excitation energies. The patterning procedure, catalyst preparation, and growth condition for fabrication of the SWCNT-FET were further discussed.