Anchoring effect of Ni2+ in stabilizing reduced metallic particles for growing single-walled carbon nanotubes

A Ni-incorporated MgO catalyst was developed for predominant synthesis of (6, 5) single walled carbon nanotubes. Density functional theory-based calculations revealed that the unreduced subsurface Ni stabilized reduced Ni atoms on the surface, facilitating the growth of carbon nanotubes with a narrow chirality distribution.382