Application of image plate for structural studies of carbon nanotubes by high-energy X-ray diffraction

An image plate detector coupled with high-energy synchrotron radiation was used to determine the structure factor and the radial distribution function of carbon nanotubes obtained by a template CVD process. The image plate detector has proved to be a very efficient tool for structural studies of nanotubes providing diffraction data of good quality in relatively short time. The diffraction data were converted to real space yielding the radial distribution function which can be used for quantitative analysis of the atomic arrangement of the carbon nanotubes. The obtained results are compared to those of traditional experiments using a conventional point Ge detector.