Structural phenomena in the growth of carbon nanotubes

HREM studies of the carbonaceous material deposited on the cathode of a Huffman-Krätschmer arc reactor have shown a rich variety of multiple-walled nano-clusters of different shapes and forms. The preparation of the samples, as well as the variety of cluster shapes, including triangular, rhombohedral and pentagonal projections, are described elsewhere.The close registry imposed on the nanotubes, focuses attention on the cluster growth mechanism. The strict parallelism in the graphitic separation of the tube walls is maintained through changes of form and size, often leading to 180° turns, and accommodating neighboring clusters and defects. Iijima et. al. have proposed a growth scheme in terms of pentagonal and heptagonal defects and their combinations in a hexagonal graphitic matrix, the first bending the surface inward, and the second outward. We report here HREM observations that support Iijima’s suggestions, and add some new features that refine the interpretation of the growth mechanism. The structural elements of our observations are briefly summarized in the following four micrographs, taken in a Hitachi H-8100 TEM operating at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV and with a point-to-point resolution of 0.20 nm.