Nitrogen-Mediated Carbon Nanotube Growth: Diameter Reduction, Metallicity, Bundle Dispersability, and Bamboo-like Structure Formation

Abstract

Carbon nanotube growth in the presence of nitrogen has been the subject of much experimental scrutiny, sparking intense debate about the role of nitrogen in the formation of diverse structural features, including shortened length, reduced diameters, and bamboo-like multilayered nanotubules. In this paper, the origin of these features is elucidated using a combination of experimental and theoretical techniques, showing that N acts as a surfactant during growth. N doping enhances the formation of smaller diameter tubes. It can also promote tube closure which includes a relatively large amount of N atoms into the tube lattice, leading to bamboo-like structures. Our findings demonstrate that the mechanism is independent of the tube chirality and suggest a simple procedure for controlling the growth of bamboo-like nanotube morphologies.

Encapsulation of Sn@carbon Nanoparticles in Bamboo‐like Hollow Carbon Nanofibers as an Anode Material in Lithium‐Based Batteries

“…It is believed that the formation of a bamboo-like structure results from the incorporation of nitrogen from PAN into the carbon nanotubes. [33] The diameters of the hollow carbon nanofibers were measured to be about 150 nm, which is less than that of the as-collected nanofibers. The main reason for this contraction is the decomposition of organic components of PAN.…”

On the origin of the high capacitance of nitrogen-containing carbon nanotubes in acidic and alkaline electrolytes

“…In N-CNTs, the positive curvature induced by the formation of possible N-containing pyrrolic structures resulted in faster tubular closure and the formation of multi-shell bamboolike tubular structures. 13 The length, size and structure of these N-CNTs are highly mediated by N incorporation into the graphitic lattice. Additionally, nitrogen can adopt either the sp 2 bonding mode (pyridinic/pyrrole functionalities) or form three C-N bonds (quaternary nitrogen).…”

Negative differential resistance in a molecular junction of carbon nanotube and benzene

“…In this paper, we investigate the electronic transport properties in the molecular noncovalent junction between the benzene molecule and SWCNT electrodes to realize NDR, which are saturated by different terminations, i.e., H-, C-and N-termination, respectively. As far as we know, by using a combination of experimental and theoretical techniques, CNTs terminated with N atoms, which forms double N==N bonds and eliminates the dangling bonds, have been shown to be stable [18]. In this paper, by a theoretical simulation that combines both first-principles DFT and NEGF formalism, the investigation results show that NDR can be observed in the N-terminated CNT junction, whereas not in the other two cases.…”

“…Since it is well known that CNT ends can be modified chemically [18,19], two isolated SWCNT (5,5) electrodes facing one another were saturated by different terminations, i.e., C-, H-and N-atoms. The two SWCNT electrodes were combined with a benzene molecular noncovalent junction as shown in Figure 1, respectively.…”