Radial followed by longitudinal unzipping of multiwalled carbon nanotubes

A hybrid structure of graphene nanoleaves attached on a carbon nanotube and rectangular graphene nanosheets (GNSs) were fabricated by means of radial followed by longitudinal unzipping of crystalline multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) grown by catalytic chemical vapor deposition, using a chemical method containing sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Consecutive unzipping in the radial direction and then in the longitudinal direction of a nanotube has never been reported. Our simple chemical approach will open the path to fabrication for rectangular GNSs in the hundred nanometers by few hundred nanometers scale and a broad application of MWCNTs to the novel carbon nanostructure.