GROWTH AND SINTERING OF FULLERENE NANOTUBES

Carbon nanotubes produced in arcs have been found to have the form of multiwalled fullerenes, at least over short lengths. Sintering of the tubes to each other is the predominant source of defects that limit th e utility of these otherwise perfect fullerene structures. The use of a water-cooled copper cathode minimized such defects, permitting nanot ubes longer than 40 micrometers to be attached to macroscopic electrod es and extracted from the bulk deposit. A detailed mechanism that feat ures the high electric field at (and field-emission from) open nanotub e tips exposed to the are plasma, and consequent positive feedback eff ects from the neutral gas and plasma, is proposed for tube growth in s uch arcs.