Selective Synthesis of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Blending Catalysts

Single-walled carbon nanotubes are considered the most attractive material and a lot of synthesis processes are developed. Among these synthesis processes chemical vapor deposition processes are considered to be most suitable for macroscopic production. In many CVD processes the alcohol catalytic CVD process can be the best process because it can produce very pure nanotubes without any purification. However, cobalt is essential as a catalyst that makes the flexibility of catalysts restricted. In this paper, our investigation mainly focused on as follows: The efficiency of combined catalysts with/without cobalt. The diameter distributions against catalysts density. The electrical states of catalysts near Fermi level. Consequently, almost all of cobalt containing catalysts worked well, and the diameter distributions were proportional to the particle size. Efficient catalysts had enough states around Fermi level and the cobalt-less efficient catalyst cluster model showed the similar density of state to the cobalt cluster. Thus, noticing to the DOS, other efficient catalysts can be discovered and the diameter distribution will be controllable by adjusting temperature, a catalyst size, and a catalyst combination without any complicated techniques and facilities.