Single walled carbon nanotube amplification on surfaces

PRES 57

Sean T. Pheasant, pheasant@rice.edu, Department of Chemistry, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, MS100, Houston, TX 77005, Valerie C. Moore, Valerie.Moore@uth.tmc.edu, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6770 Bertner Avenue THI C964A, Houston, TX 77030, Robert Hauge, Hauge@rice.edu, Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, MS100, Houston, TX 77005, and Richard E. Smalley, Department of Chemistry, Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, MS 100, Houston, TX 77005.
Current methods of producing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) cannot create a batch of tubes of a single chirality. A way to make such a batch is to sort out SWNTs of a particular chirality and put them into a reactor to be used as templates. Experiments were done on surfaces to prove that this seeded growth is possible. Various iron nanoparticles were attached to the ends of the SWNTs in solution as a catalyst for growth. The SWNT/catalyst combination was then deposited on a surface. The surfaces used were highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and silicon dioxide. They were then put into a tube furnace and run at high temperatures (700-900C) while a feedstock gas was passed over them. The different feedstock gases used were carbon monoxide, ethylene and methane. While it occurred less than 1% of the time, the SWNTs deposited on HOPG were found to grow longer.
 

SWNTs From Synthesis to Application, From the Lab to the Fab: In Memory of Dr. Richard Smalley
4:30 PM-6:30 PM, Sunday, 10 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Room 305, Poster

Presidential Event

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006