Thin Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Narrow Diameter Distribution Grown by Cold-Wall Chemical Vapor Deposition Combined with Co Nanoparticle Deposition

Abstract

We have grown thin single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with a narrow diameter distribution using the arc-discharge plasma (ADP) technique for Co catalyst metal deposition and a cold-wall chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system for SWNT growth. The diameters of the SWNTs ranged from 0.79 to 1.07 nm. In addition to depositing small and uniform-sized metal catalyst nanoparticles by the ADP technique, decreasing the growth temperature using the cold-wall CVD system seemed to suppress the aggregation of the metal catalyst nanoparitcles leading to SWNTs with small diameters of narrow distribution.