Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) possess many unique electrical and mechanical properties. They can be electrically conducting, semiconducting or insulating, based on their chirality. They also have a high surface area and a high strength-to-weight ratio. These properties make SWNTs desirable for many applications, including nano-electronic devices and composite materials. However, applications such as composite materials require large quantities of SWNTs, making them infeasible at current nanotube costs.
At LACER, we are developing flame-based approaches to producing SWNTs. Diffusion flames may provide a synthesis route capable of achieving the necessary production rates; however, past attempts have led to low-quality nanotubes with amorphous carbon impurities.
Our approach relies on Flame Design and the addition of silicon to produce clean SWNTs, as seen in Figure 1. Figure 2, shown to the right, is a photograph of the flame used to produce the materials. The flame is a laminar inverse diffusion flame, in which ferrocene is used as the seed catalyst’s source of iron.
