Fine structure of boron nitride nanotubes produced from carbon nanotubes by a substitution reaction

Here we report on the precise structural investigation of multiwalled boron nitride (BN) nanotubes by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The nanotubes were produced from carbon nanotubes by applying a recently discovered technique: a substitution chemical reaction [W. Han, Y. Bando, K. Kurashima, and T. Sato, Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 3085 (1998)]. It is found that in contrast to the starting carbon nanotubes, which exhibited large number of shells (typically >10), a significant proportion of buckled and corrugated graphene-like sheets, poor degree of graphitization, and wide distribution of helicities, the resultant BN nanotubes revealed perfectly straight shapes, limited number of shells (typically 2–6), and remarkable ordering of the graphene-like sheets in the so-called nonhelical “zig-zag” fashion with the [1010] direction parallel to the tube axis.Here we report on the precise structural investigation of multiwalled boron nitride (BN) nanotubes by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The nanotubes were produced from carbon nanotubes by applying a recently discovered technique: a substitution chemical reaction [W. Han, Y. Bando, K. Kurashima, and T. Sato, Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 3085 (1998)]. It is found that in contrast to the starting carbon nanotubes, which exhibited large number of shells (typically >10), a significant proportion of buckled and corrugated graphene-like sheets, poor degree of graphitization, and wide distribution of helicities, the resultant BN nanotubes revealed perfectly straight shapes, limited number of shells (typically 2–6), and remarkable ordering of the graphene-like sheets in the so-called nonhelical “zig-zag” fashion with the [1010] direction parallel to the tube axis.

[1]  Y. Bando,et al.  Synthesis of boron nitride nanotubes from carbon nanotubes by a substitution reaction , 1998 .

[2]  Y. Bando,et al.  Octahedral boron nitride fullerenes formed by electron beam irradiation , 1998 .

[3]  T. Ebbesen,et al.  Structure and Oxidation Patterns of Carbon Nanotubes , 1998 .

[4]  R. Car,et al.  Frustration effects and microscopic growth mechanisms for BN nanotubes , 1998 .

[5]  M. Eremets,et al.  Boron nitride nanotube growth defects and their annealing-out under electron irradiation , 1997 .

[6]  M. Eremets,et al.  Nanotubes in boron nitride laser heated at high pressure , 1996 .

[7]  M. Terrones,et al.  Metal particle catalysed production of nanoscale BN structures , 1996 .

[8]  Young Hee Lee,et al.  Crystalline Ropes of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes , 1996, Science.

[9]  F. Willaime,et al.  Boron nitride nanotubes with reduced numbers of layers synthesized by arc discharge. , 1996, Physical review letters.

[10]  Miyamoto,et al.  Theoretical study of one-dimensional chains of metal atoms in nanotubes. , 1995, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[11]  Steven G. Louie,et al.  Boron Nitride Nanotubes , 1995, Science.

[12]  Y. Bando.  Microstructure Analysis of Advanced Ceramics by High-Resolution Analytical Transmission Electron Microscopy , 1995 .

[13]  S. Louie,et al.  Stability and Band Gap Constancy of Boron Nitride Nanotubes , 1994 .

[14]  X. B. Zhang,et al.  Carbon nano-tubes; their formation process and observation by electron microscopy , 1993 .

[15]  S. Iijima.  Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon , 1991, Nature.

[16]  R. Car,et al.  Microscopic growth mechanisms for carbon and boron-nitride nanotubes , 1999 .

[17]  M. Eremets,et al.  High–resolution analytical electron microscopy of boron nitrides laser heated at high pressure , 1997 .