Low temperature growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes from Rh catalysts

Here, we carried out synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in an ultra-high vacuum chamber by alcohol catalytic chemical vapor deposition (ACCVD) using Rh nanoparticles as catalysts. By optimizing the ethanol pressure precisely, we succeeded in growth of good-quality SWCNTs at 270 °C, which is a record of the lowest temperature for the SWCNT growth. The activation energy for SWCNT growth from Rh catalysts was estimated to be 0.85 eV, which was much smaller than that reported for SWCNT growth by ACCVD using CoMo catalysts. This low activation barrier of Rh catalysts should enable the reduction of growth temperature.

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