Van der Waals SWCNT@BN Heterostructures Synthesized from Solution-Processed Chirality-Pure Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes.

Abstract

Single-wall carbon nanotubes in boron nitride (SWCNT@BN) are one-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures that exhibit intriguing physical and chemical properties. As with their carbon nanotube counterparts, these heterostructures can form from different combinations of chiralities, providing rich structures but also posing a significant synthetic challenge to controlling their structure. Enabled by advances in nanotube chirality sorting, clean removal of the surfactant used for solution processing, and a simple method to fabricate free-standing submonolayer films of chirality pure SWCNTs as templates for the BN growth, we show it is possible to directly grow BN on chirality enriched SWCNTs from solution processing to form van der Waals heterostructures. We further report factors affecting the heterostructure formation, including an accelerated growth rate in the presence of H2, and significantly improved crystallization of the grown BN, with the BN thickness controlled down to one single BN layer, through the presence of a Cu foil in the reactor. Transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopic mapping confirm the synthesis of SWCNT@BN from the solution purified nanotubes. The photoluminescence peaks of both (7,5)- and (8,4)-SWCNT@BN heterostructures are found to redshift (by ∼10 nm) relative to the bare SWCNTs. Raman scattering suggests that the grown BN shells pose a confinement effect on the SWCNT core.