Influence of the gas pressure on single-wall carbon nanotube formation

Experiments and modeling are performed to predict the effect of gas pressure on species distributions and nanotube growth rate under specific conditions of synthesis of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by arc discharge. Numerical results are compared with experiments in order to find a consistent correlation between the nanotube growth and the pressure. We use argon and helium as buffer gases with a total pressure varied between 0.1 and 1 bar. We experimentally observe that both the anode erosion rate and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of the as-produced nanotube soot material are very sensitive to the total gas pressure in the reactor.