A systematic procedure for determining the chiral indices of multi-walled carbon nanotubes using electron diffraction—each and every shell

Electron diffraction technique has been developed and refined to establish a systematic procedure to determine the chirality (chiral indices) of each and every shell in a carbon nanotube. We have introduced a zoning scheme to sort the reflection layer lines from the multiple shells of a carbon nanotube. An application of the procedure is demonstrated as an example for an eleven-shell carbon nanotube whose chiral indices of each and every shell were determined unambiguously. The revealed structure of the carbon nanotube suggests that there is no strong correlation among the shells as the nanotube was formed. The limitations of the current method are also discussed.

Research Highlights
► Systematic procedure to obtain chirality of carbon nanotubes;
► Nano-electron diffraction from carbon nanotube;
► Determination of chiral indices of each and every shell of an eleven-shell carbon nanotube.