Is there a correlation between catalyst particle size and CNT diameter?

Monodisperse iron oxide particles were deposited on a planar silica transmission electron microscope (TEM) grid and from TEM and Energy Filtered TEM analyses it is confirmed that the particles are involved in a series of re-arrangements during the pretreatment and initial carbon nanotube (CNT) growth. It is also shown that CNT growth occurs in two stages; an initial disordered growth, followed by a more aligned growth underneath. The planar silica TEM grid serves the dual purpose of being the catalytic support, and the tool which facilitates TEM analysis on a planar model system. The particle re-arrangements and the two modes of CNT growth may offer an explanation as to why we find no correlation between primary particle size and final CNT diameter.