Wednesday, 6th December 2006 (4018 views)

It has been discovered that single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can be produced by gold, silver and copper, following tests by researchers in Japan.

The findings were significant due to the fact that the controlled synthesis of SWCNTs is imperative in terms of their effectiveness for nanotechnology.

Gold's role in the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of SWCNTs was tested at Professor Yoshikazu Homma's laboratory at the Tokyo University of Science and he stated that the results came as a shock.

Professor Homma explained: "We have investigated the role of catalysts in CVD of SWCNT and aimed at uncovering the SWCNT growth mechanism"

"The known effective catalyst species of SWCNT synthesis in CVD are almost limited to the iron-family transition metals iron, cobalt and nickel and it came as a total surprise for us that gold and silver would produce SWCNTs too."

Professor Homma went on to state that the process of treating gold, silver and copper involves pre-heating nanoparticles in air to a temperature of at least 800 degrees.

SWCNTs were initially discovered back in 1991 and they consist of a graphite sheet that is made up of hexagons and pentagons.

 

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