SYNTHESIS OF SINGLE WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES BY A SEMI-CONTINUOUS HYDROGEN ARC METHOD

High quality single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be synthesized in a larger scale using hydrogen gas rather than helium as buffer gas, and with structure modification of equipment and addition of growth promoter. By this hydrogen arc discharge method film like or web like substances, which are mainly made up of SWNT bundles determined by TEM and SEM observations, were obtained. Moreover, the results of laser Raman resonant measurements indicated a larger mean diameter of our SWNTs. The above characteristics of the SWNTs can be attributed to the introduction of hydrogen gas and the addition of the growth promoter.