2003/04/15 by Takuya Hayashi, Yoong Ahm Kim, Toshiharu Matoba +5 · 3 citations
Materials Science · Chemistry · #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Graphene research and applications #Fullerene Chemistry and Applications
paper · doi:10.1021/nl034080r
openalex publication_date 2003/04/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Here, we report the successful direct observation of the smallest free-standing single-walled carbon nanotube, which has a diameter of about 0.43 nm. Our single-walled carbon nanotubes were produced by the improved floating reactant method, which combines the conventional substrate and floating catalyst methods using zeolite particles as a floating catalyst support. This finding is also important because small-diameter nanotubes were proved to be able to grow without any confinement that limits the tube diameter such as in the tube growth in a template or in the central core of a multiwalled nanotube, as reported in previous studies by other groups. The success of obtaining very small single-walled carbon nanotubes opens the door to unprecedented applications of this fascinating material as a true 1D material.