Crystal plane dependent growth of aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes on sapphire

Naoki Ishigami, Hiroki Ago, Kenta Imamoto, Masaharu Tsuji, Konstantin Iakoubovskii, Nobutsugu Minami

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    125 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    On single-crystal substrates, such as sapphire (α-Al 2O3) and quartz (SiO2), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) align along specific crystallographic axes of the crystal, indicating that the SWNT growth is influenced by the crystal surface. Here, we show that not only the orientation, but also the diameter and chirality of SWNTs are affected by the crystal plane of the sapphire substrate. The aligned SWNTs grown on the A- and R-planes of sapphire have narrower diameter distributions than randomly oriented tubes produced on the C-plane sapphire and amorphous SiO2. Photoluminescence measurements reveal a striking difference between the aligned SWNTs: near-zigzag tubes are observed on the A-plane and near-armchair tubes on the R-plane. This study shows the route for the diameter and chirality control of SWNTs by surface atomic arrangements of a single-crystal substrate.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)9918-9924
    Number of pages7
    JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
    Volume130
    Issue number30
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 30 2008

    All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

    • Catalysis
    • Chemistry(all)
    • Biochemistry
    • Colloid and Surface Chemistry

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