BULK MORPHOLOGY AND DIAMETER DISTRIBUTION OF SINGLE-WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES SYNTHESIZED BY CATALYTIC DECOMPOSITION OF HYDROCARBONS

Long and wide ropes/ribbons of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) bu ndles with rope diameters of 100 mu m and lengths to 3 cm were synthes ized by the catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbons. These ropes/ribbo ns consist of roughly-aligned bundles of aligned SWNTs. The SWNT diame ters, as determined from HRTEM images, are 1.69 +/- 0.34 nm, which, in combination with resonant Raman scattering measurements, indicates th at our SWNTs have larger diameters than those synthesized by other tec hniques. The larger SWNTs are promising for gas-storage applications. The easy manipulation of the ropes offer special opportunities for the ir characterization and applications. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.