Longitudinal Cutting of Pure and Doped Carbon Nanotubes to Form Graphitic Nanoribbons Using Metal Clusters as Nanoscalpels

Abstract

We report the use of transition metal nanoparticles (Ni or Co) to longitudinally cut open multiwalled carbon nanotubes in order to create graphitic nanoribbons. The process consists of catalytic hydrogenation of carbon, in which the metal particles cut sp(2) hybridized carbon atoms along nanotubes that results in the liberation of hydrocarbon species. Observations reveal the presence of unzipped nanotubes that were cut by the nanoparticles. We also report the presence of partially open carbon nanotubes, which have been predicted to have novel magnetoresistance properties.(1) The nanoribbons produced are typically 15-40 nm wide and 100-500 nm long. This method offers an alternative approach for making graphene nanoribbons, compared to the chemical methods reported recently in the literature.

Interphases in Graphene Polymer‐based Nanocomposites: Achievements and Challenges

“…The fi rst methods developed to obtain graphitic nanoribbons from nanotubes were published in 2009 and 2010. [31][32][33][34][35][36] A comprehensive review on the properties and synthesis of GNRs has been reported elsewhere. [ 37 ] Jia et al [ 38 ] noted that when using Joule heating and high electron irradiation, the most stable edges in graphene ribbons are either zigzag or armchair edges.…”

Formation of identical-size graphene nanoclusters on Ru(0001)

“…The most straightforward way is to cut or unzip bulk graphene and CNTs into nano-dimensions. [7][8][9][10][11] However, these top-down methods can only be utilized to prepare GNRs. Fabrication of uniform GNCs still remains challenging.…”

Electron and phonon transport in twisted graphene nanoribbons

“…Twisted nanoribbons have been fabricated encapsulated inside graphene nanotubes [44,45] or by means of chemical etching. [46] The effect of twisting on their structural, [47,48] electronic [49] and transport [50,51,52,53] properties has been recently explored mostly from the theory side. Apart from showing the expectable degradation of the electronic and thermal transport properties, calculations performed at different twist angles have predicted an electromechanical switching effect induced by twisting and occurring in both armchair [51,52] and zig-zag GNRs.…”