CoPt/CeO2 catalysts for the growth of narrow diameter semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes

Lei Tang; Taotao Li; Chaowei Li; Lin Ling; Kai Zhang; Yagang Yao

doi:10.1039/C5NR05616K

CoPt/CeO₂ catalysts for the growth of narrow diameter semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes†

Lei Tang,^ab Taotao Li,^a Chaowei Li,^ab Lin Ling,^a Kai Zhang^a and Yagang Yao*^a

* Corresponding authors

^a Division of Advanced Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China
E-mail: ygyao2013@sinano.ac.cn

^b School of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

Abstract

For the application of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in nanoelectronic devices, effective techniques for the growth of semiconducting SWNTs (s-SWNTs) with a specific diameter are still a great challenge. Herein, we report a facile strategy for the selective growth of narrow diameter distributed s-SWNTs using CoPt/CeO₂ catalysts. The addition of Pt into a Co catalyst dramatically reduces the diameter distributions and even the chirality distributions of the as-grown SWNTs. Oxygen vacancies that are provided by mesoporous CeO₂ are responsible for creating an oxidative environment to in situ etch metallic SWNTs (m-SWNTs). Atomic force microscope (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy characterizations indicate a narrow diameter distribution of 1.32 ± 0.03 nm and the selective growth of s-SWNTs to 93%, respectively. In addition, electronic transport measurements also confirm that the I_on/I_off ratio is mainly in the order of ∼10³. This work provides an effective strategy for the facile fabrication of narrow diameter distributed s-SWNTs, which will be beneficial to fundamental research and the broad application of SWNTs for future nanoelectronics.

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5NR05616K
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 19 Aug 2015
Accepted: 28 Oct 2015
First published: 29 Oct 2015

Download Citation

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 19699-19704

Author version available

Download author version (PDF)

Permissions

Request permissions

CoPt/CeO₂ catalysts for the growth of narrow diameter semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes

L. Tang, T. Li, C. Li, L. Ling, K. Zhang and Y. Yao, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 19699 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR05616K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Nanoscale