Synthesis and characterization of ultralong single-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Ultarlong aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are very useful for high performance nanoelectronics because they have uniform properties along tube axis. In this study, ultralong and well-aligned SWNT arrays were synthesized via an ultralow gas flow chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system using ethanol as the carbon source. Raman spectroscopy was employed to comprehensively characterize the as-grown SWNTs. The intensity ratio of D band and G band (I D /I G ) of the SWNTs was extremely low, indicating the nanotubes are of high quality. The frequencies of RBM and G band acquired along one isolated tube axis maintained constant over a large length scale, which reveals that the SWNT is structural and chiral uniform. Field-effect transistors (FETs) were fabricated with such ultralong single nanotube as conduction channel, exhibiting excellent performances. Our results show possibility of large scale fabricating SWNT-based electronic devices and perspective of creating integrated circuits on individual SWNTs.