Qian Yong, Huang Bin, Gao Fenglei, Wang Chunyan, Ren Guangyuan
Nanoscale Res Lett. 2010 Jul 18;5(10):1578-84. doi: 10.1007/s11671-010-9679-x.
In this paper, we have demonstrated that europium oxide (Eu(2)O(3)) is a new type of active catalyst for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) growth under suitable conditions. Both random SWNT networks and horizontally aligned SWNT arrays are efficiently grown on silicon wafers. The density of the SWNT arrays can be altered by the CVD conditions. This result further provides the experimental evidence that the efficient catalyst for SWNT growth is more size dependent than the catalysts themselves. Furthermore, the SWNTs from europium sesquioxides have compatibly higher quality than that from Fe/Mo catalyst. More importantly, over 80% of the nanotubes from Eu(2)O(3) are semiconducting SWNTs (s-SWNTs), indicating the preferential growth of s-SWNTs from Eu(2)O(3). This new finding could open a way for selective growth of s-SWNTs, which can be used as high-current nanoFETs and sensors. Moreover, the successful growth of SWNTs by Eu(2)O(3) catalyst provides new experimental information for understanding the preferential growth of s-SWNTs from Eu(2)O(3), which may be helpful for their controllable synthesis.
在本文中，我们已经证明，在合适的条件下，氧化铕（Eu₂O₃）是一种用于生长单壁碳纳米管（SWNTs）的新型活性催化剂。随机的SWNT网络和水平排列的SWNT阵列都能在硅片上高效生长。SWNT阵列的密度可通过化学气相沉积（CVD）条件改变。这一结果进一步提供了实验证据，即用于SWNT生长的高效催化剂比催化剂本身更依赖尺寸。此外，由倍半氧化铕生长得到的SWNTs质量比由Fe/Mo催化剂生长得到的更高。更重要的是，来自Eu₂O₃的纳米管中超过80%是半导体单壁碳纳米管（s-SWNTs），这表明Eu₂O₃优先生长s-SWNTs。这一新发现可能为s-SWNTs的选择性生长开辟一条道路，s-SWNTs可用于高电流纳米场效应晶体管和传感器。此外，通过Eu₂O₃催化剂成功生长SWNTs为理解Eu₂O₃优先生长s-SWNTs提供了新的实验信息，这可能有助于它们的可控合成。
