Boron-Mediated Growth of Long Helicity-Selected Carbon Nanotubes

X. Blase; J.-C. Charlier; A. De Vita; R. Car; Ph. Redlich; M. Terrones; W. K. Hsu; H. Terrones; D. L. Carroll; P. M. Ajayan

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.5078

Boron-Mediated Growth of Long Helicity-Selected Carbon Nanotubes

X. Blase, J.-C. Charlier, A. De Vita, R. Car, Ph. Redlich, M. Terrones, W. K. Hsu, H. Terrones, D. L. Carroll, and P. M. Ajayan

Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5078 – Published 13 December 1999

Abstract

We investigate the growth of B-doped carbon nanotubes combining experimental and theoretical techniques. Electron microscopy observations and electron diffraction patterns reveal that B doping considerably increases the length of carbon tubes and leads to a remarkable preferred zigzag chirality. These findings are corroborated by first-principles static and dynamical simulations which indicate that, in the zigzag geometry, B atoms act as a surfactant during growth, preventing tube closure. This mechanism does not extend to armchair tubes, suggesting a helicity selection during growth.

Received 30 April 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.5078

Authors & Affiliations

X. Blase^1,3, J.-C. Charlier^2,3, A. De Vita^3,4, and R. Car^3,5,*

¹Université Claude Bernard-Lyon I and CNRS, Départment de Physique des Matériaux (UMR 5586), 43, boulevard du 11 novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cédex, France
²Unité de Physico-Chimie et de Physique des Matériaux, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 1, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
³Institut Romand de Recherche Numérique en Physique des Matériaux (IRRMA), INR-Ecublens, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
⁴INFM and Dipartimento di Ingegneria dei Materiali, Università di Trieste, via A. Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
⁵Département de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Genève, 24 quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH1211 Genève 4, Switzerland

Ph. Redlich¹, M. Terrones^2,3, W. K. Hsu², H. Terrones³, D. L. Carroll⁴, and P. M. Ajayan⁵

¹Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Seestrasse 92, D-70174, Germany
²School of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, United Kingdom
³Instituto de Física, UNAM, Apartado Postal 1-1010, 76000 Querétaro, México
⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634
⁵Department of Material Sciences and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180-3590

^*New permanent address: Department of Chemistry and Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University, Washington Road and William Street, Princeton, NJ 08544-1009.