Kinetics Studies of Ultralong Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were synthesized using ethanol CVD to study the nucleation kinetics of nanotube growth. By counting the number density of SWCNTs, i.e., the number of nanotubes per unit area on the substrate, the nucleation process of SWCNT growth was studied extensively within a wide range of growth temperatures. A nucleation energy about 2.8 eV was obtained from the Arrhenius-like temperature dependence of the number density of SWCNTs. The big difference between nucleation energy and diffusion energy implies the growth route for ultralong SWCNTs, and our approach may afford control over nanotube structure. The novel approach of studying the influence of “measure length” on activation energy may open an opportunity to understand the physics behind growth of nanotubes.