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Engineering Molecular Recognition with Bio-mimetic Polymers on Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Published on: January 10, 2017
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Intrinsic Chirality Origination in Carbon Nanotubes
Neal Pierce1, Gugang Chen1, Lakshmy P Rajukumar1,2
1Honda Research Institute USA Inc. , Columbus, Ohio 43212, United States.
ACS Nano
|September 28, 2017
Summary
Understanding carbon nanotube chirality is crucial. This study reveals that carbon nuclei have an intrinsic preference for specific chiralities, independent of catalyst structure, influencing nanotube growth.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Chemical Engineering
Background:
- Controlling carbon nanotube (CNT) chirality is essential for harnessing their unique properties.
- Existing theories often attribute CNT chirality to the epitaxial relationship with catalyst structures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the intrinsic factors governing carbon nanotube chirality.
- To differentiate the influence of intrinsic carbon nucleation preferences from catalyst-induced effects on chirality.
Main Methods:
- Grew carbon nanotubes on floating liquid gallium (Ga) droplets to eliminate catalyst structure influence.
- Compared chirality abundances from liquid Ga droplet growth with those from solid ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticle catalysts.
- Analyzed chirality abundances in relation to nucleation probability, considering the Zeldovich factor and deviation from critical size.
Main Results:
- Growth on liquid Ga droplets demonstrated an intrinsic preference of carbon nuclei for specific chiralities, independent of catalyst morphology.
- Observed significant differences in chirality abundance between liquid and solid catalyst systems.
- Found that while some chiralities showed strong intrinsic preference (e.g., (11,1) over (9,4) for same diameter), others fluctuated with temperature on liquid droplets, suggesting a combined effect.
Conclusions:
- CNT chirality arises from an interplay between the intrinsic preference of carbon clusters and external induction by catalyst structure.
- Liquid catalyst droplets offer a promising route for exploring intrinsic chirality preferences.
- Findings pave the way for developing strategies for chirality-selective synthesis of carbon nanotubes.
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