Initiation of carbon nanotube growth by well-defined carbon nanorings

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), tubular molecular entities that consist of sp2-hybridized carbon atoms, are currently produced as mixtures that contain tubes of various diameters and different sidewall structures. The electronic and optical properties of CNTs are determined by their diameters and sidewall structures and so a controlled synthesis of uniform-diameter, single-chirality CNTs—a significant chemical challenge—would provide access to pure samples with predictable properties. Here we report a rational bottom-up approach to synthesize structurally uniform CNTs using carbon nanorings (cycloparaphenylenes) as templates and ethanol as the carbon source. The average diameter of the CNTs formed is close to that of the carbon nanorings used, which supports the operation of a ‘growth-from-template’ mechanism in CNT formation. This bottom-up organic chemistry approach is intrinsically different from other conventional approaches to making CNTs and, if it can be optimized sufficiently, offers a route to the programmable synthesis of structurally uniform CNTs. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are typically produced as a mixture of tubes with different diameters and sidewall structures — parameters that determine the optical and electronic properties of these materials. Now, it has been shown that discrete carbon nanorings can be used as templates to control the bottom-up growth of CNTs with a narrow distribution of diameters.

Cite this article

Omachi, H., Nakayama, T., Takahashi, E. et al. Initiation of carbon nanotube growth by well-defined carbon nanorings. Nature Chem 5, 572–576 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1655

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