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Publication

Mechanisms of selective nanocarbon synthesis inside carbon nanotubes

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

The possibility of confinement effects inside a carbon nanotube provides new application opportunities, e.g., growth of novel carbon nanostructures. However, the understanding the precise role of catalyst-feedstock in the nanostructure synthesis is still elusive. In our simulation-based study, we investigate the Ni-catalyzed growth mechanism of encapsulated carbon nanostructures, viz. double-wall carbon nanotube and graphene nanoribbon, from carbon and hydrocarbon growth precursors, respectively. Specifically, we find that the tube and ribbon growth is determined by a catalyst-vs-feedstock competition effect. We compare our results, i.e., growth mechanism and structure morphology with all available theoretical and experimental data. Our calculations show that all encapsulated nanostructures contain metal (catalyst) atoms and such structures are less stable than their pure counterparts. Therefore, we study the purification mechanism of these structures. In general, this study opens a possible route to the controllable synthesis of tubular and planar carbon nanostructures for today’s nanotechnology.
Journal: Carbon
ISSN: 0008-6223
Volume: 171
Pages: 72 - 78
Publication year:2021
Keywords:A1 Journal article
BOF-keylabel:yes
BOF-publication weight:6
CSS-citation score:1
Authors from:Higher Education
Accessibility:Open