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Growth of uniform thin-walled carbon nanotubes with spin-coated Fe catalyst and the correlation between the pre-growth catalyst size and the nanotube diameter

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Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and double-walled CNTs with a selectivity of 93 % were obtained by means of the novel homemade iron catalysts which were spin coated on silicon wafer. The average diameters of the iron particles prepared from the colloidal solutions containing 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 mmol/L of iron nitrate were 8.2, 5.1, 20.8, 32.2, and 34.7 nm, respectively, and growing thin-walled CNTs with the average diameters of 4.1, 2.2, 9.2, 11.1, and 18.1 nm, respectively. The diameters of the CNTs were correlated with the geometric sizes of the pre-growth catalyst particles. Thin-walled CNTs were found to have a catalyst mean diameter-to-CNT average diameter ratio of 2.31. Iron carbide was formed after the growth of CNTs, and it is believed that during the growth of CNTs, carbon source decomposed and deposited on the surface of catalyst, followed by the diffusion of surface carbon into the iron catalyst particles, resulting in carbon supersaturation state before the growth of CNTs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Fellowship), Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), the Long Term Research Scheme (LRGS) and APEX DE 2012. The authors would like to thank Prof. Tadashi Itoh from Osaka University for allowing the authors to use HR-TEM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai Selatan, P. Pinang, Malaysia

    Choon-Ming Seah & Abdul Rahman Mohamed

  2. Chemical Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, Monash University, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 46150, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia

    Siang-Piao Chai

  3. Institute for NanoScience Design, Osaka University, 1-3, Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan

    Satoshi Ichikawa

Authors
  1. Choon-Ming Seah
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  2. Siang-Piao Chai
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  3. Satoshi Ichikawa
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  4. Abdul Rahman Mohamed
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Correspondence to Abdul Rahman Mohamed.

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Seah, CM., Chai, SP., Ichikawa, S. et al. Growth of uniform thin-walled carbon nanotubes with spin-coated Fe catalyst and the correlation between the pre-growth catalyst size and the nanotube diameter. J Nanopart Res 15, 1371 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1371-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1371-x

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