Tunable assembly of carbon nanospheres on single-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

We have developed a process for spontaneous assembly of carbon nanospheres on aligned ornonaligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) by virtue of plasma-enhancedchemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The formation of carbon nanospheres with a uniformsize of 30–60 nm is a catalyst-free process and strongly dependent on the applied plasmapower and other factors. Both co-deposition and post-deposition approaches have beendeveloped for effective assembly of carbon nanospheres on SWNTs. Furthermore, themethod developed here also allows us to tailor the density and size of carbonnanospheres along nanotubes in a controllable way. The heterojunction structurebased on different types of carbon demonstrated in this study represents a newhybrid manner for building complex systems which are promising for variousapplications.