Structure in nascent carbon nanotubes revealed by spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy

• Spatial co-localization of iron and carbon structures in nascent carbon nanotubes
• Imaging local carbon structure changes along catalyst particles by Raman spectroscopy.
• In nascent nanotubes, significant structural changes occur along catalyst particle.

The understanding of carbon nanotube (CNT) growth is crucial for the control of their production. In particular, the identification of structural changes of carbon possibly occurring near the catalyst particle in the very early stages of their formation is of high interest. In this study, samples of nascent CNT obtained during nucleation step and samples of vertically aligned CNT obtained during growth step are analysed by combined spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction measurements. Spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy reveals that iron-based phases and carbon phases are co-localized at the same position, and indicates that sp2 carbon nucleates preferentially on iron-based particles during this nucleation step. Depth scan Raman spectroscopy analysis, performed on nascent CNT, highlights that carbon structural organisation is significantly changing from defective graphene layers surrounding the iron-based particles at their base up to multi-walled nanotube structures in the upper part of iron-based particles.