Tuning carbon nanotubes through poor metal addition to iron catalysts in CVD

Abstract

In this contribution we explore the use of poor metals (Al, Ga, In and Pb) and Zn with Fe in the catalytic CVD of carbon nanotubes. The addition of these metals lead to a rich set of changes in the obtained nanotubes. The uses of poor metals are shown to offer benefits in the quality and control in the number of walls of the produced carbon nanotubes. They can improve the quality of single walled carbon nanotubes (Fe/Zn) or be used to tailor the type of resultant tube from high-yield double-walled carbon nanotubes (Fe/Al) and to higher order CNT (Fe/Pb) and bamboo CNT (Fe/Ga and Fe/In).