Growth of “all-carbon” single-walled carbon nanotubes from diamonds and fullerenes

We have demonstrated the growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) from diamond nanoparticles (NPs) and fullerenes. The productive synthesis of SWCNTs can be achieved using either dispersed or non-dispersive diamond NPs or fullerenes as catalysts, in ethanol solutions at different concentrations. The diamond NPs and fullerenes were identified as being responsible for the growth of the SWCNTs. Our approach, which differs from all other literature preparations of SWCNTs, provides a highly efficient way of producing SWCNTs which only contain carbon.