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Selective growth of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes solely from carbon monoxide

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Abstract

The selective growth of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) is of great importance in many high-end applications represented by nanoelectronics. Here, we developed a general approach to grow horizontally aligned s-SWCNT arrays on stable temperature (ST)-cut quartz with bimetallic catalysts using carbon monoxide (CO) as both catalyst reductant and single component carbon feedstock under atmospheric pressure. The disproportionation of CO produces not only carbon species for SWCNT growth but also CO2, which could act as an in-situ etchant to remove both amorphous carbon and metallic tubes. The employment of bimetallic catalyst and quartz substrate facilitates the selective etching by narrowing the diameter distribution of as-grown SWCNT arrays. At the optimized conditions, we realized the selective growth of horizontally aligned s-SWCNT arrays with the content above 97% using CoCu catalysts, confirmed by Raman characterization and electrical measurements of the fabricated field effect transistor devices. This CO-based process in selective growth of s-SWCNTs has demonstrated its feasibility and universality by the broad growth window and applicability for other bimetallic catalysts, such as FeCu and CoMn. It possesses a practical potential in obtaining semiconducting channel materials for the scalable fabrication of CNT-based devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22120102004 and U21A6004), the National R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFA1203300), Shenzhen KQTD Project (No. KQTD20180411143400981), Science and Technology Major Project of Shanxi (No. 202101030201022), and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (No. BNLMS-CXTD-202001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Xue Zhao, Zeyao Zhang, Qidong Liu, Jian Sheng, Yijie Hu, Ruoming Li & Yan Li

  2. Beijing HuaTanYuanXin Electronics Technology Ltd. Co., Beijing, 101399, China

    Ningfei Gao & Haitao Xu

  3. Institute of Carbon-Based Thin Film Electronics, Peking University, Shanxi, Taiyuan, 030012, China

    Zeyao Zhang, Haitao Xu, Lianmao Peng & Yan Li

  4. Institute of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030031, China

    Zeyao Zhang & Haitao Xu

  5. PKU-HKUST ShenZhen-HongKong Institution, Shenzhen, 518057, China

    Yan Li

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  1. Xue Zhao
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  2. Ningfei Gao
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  9. Lianmao Peng
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  10. Yan Li
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Correspondence to Yan Li.

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Zhao, X., Gao, N., Zhang, Z. et al. Selective growth of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes solely from carbon monoxide. Nano Res. 16, 12720–12726 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6138-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6138-4

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